jaxblog

Saying what you mean

2011-06-20T11:57:00.001-04:00

We often are told that being effective in what we do is, in part, dependent on how well we can differentiate between what is important and what is urgent. This is an example of the former which got displaced by the latter.

I started writing this in January 2010 after watching Glenn Beck attempt to show how Progressivists have misrepresented or disconnected history from people today. That particular issue has nothing to do with my topic, nor is this supporting or disputing Beck’s arguments, but I mention it because it provided me with the jumping off point for my thinking.

On at least two occasions in his program Beck said, “Back in a second” before a break. For some reason I counted those seconds and, the first time counted 210, the next one I didn’t count accurately, but estimate that it was at least 150 seconds.

The point here is that we use many words and expressions which do not mean what they say, and when we use them we often don’t even consider what it is that we intend to say … rather we just utter something that expresses an approximate idea that we haven’t even clarified for ourselves.

One of the most frequent terms that comes to mind which is used by younger people is “whatever,” as a response to somehow indicate that no further discussion is wanted. I’m not intending to be critical of young people when I say this, but wouldn’t it be much better to simply say something like, “Let’s talk about something else”? Or, “This topic bores me,” or whatever really expresses the mood of the moment.

If we, ourselves do not take the responsibility of choosing and using terms which express clearly what it is that we want to communicate, why should we be the least bit surprised if politicians, journalists, teachers, children, or anyone are misunderstood or ambiguous.

Like anything else, if we wish to see change in things around us, we must initiate a change in ourselves and if we want others to start meaning what they say, we, too, must do the same and the start to that is to choose words that allow us to say what we mean and to insist that others who are trying to communicate with us do the same.

Technorati Tags: Glenn Beck,Progressivism,communication,language,journalists,meaning

You’re Wrong Fred!

2011-05-30T20:19:00.001-04:00

Fred Reed is an interesting blogger and he doesn’t shy away from taking on controversial topics, but in his blog which he calls A Polity of Castrati he argues that women are purely consumers of what men produce.

Actually, on the surface, the arguments he presents are quite convincing, but I believe he is missing an essential point: That women’s role in most of the world today is a cultural distinction, not one which is determined by the essential nature of women.

He spends considerable time developing the idea that women do not produce the things which make our lives and civilization as a whole what it is to day, the implication being that they are not capable of doing so.

I’m wondering, however, if in many areas, if there aren’t achievements or discoveries which women have made that he has overlooked and that perhaps our whole society doesn’t easily recognize.

I agree wholeheartedly with the observation that women are essentially different from men. They are physically different and I’ve little doubt that these physical differences don’t lead to some differences in the way that they think and act.

In his conclusion Fred seems to imply that his country is being feminized right up to the governing level and seems to be dubious over the future prospect over that happening.

I do agree with some of his observation that many affirmative action laws and similar actions have produced some strange and undesirable results, but I think he is missing the point when he fears for the future because of women’s role in government.

I would agree with the assertion that gender equality, just for equality’s sake is not a good policy. Women should be allowed to do what they do best, and men what they do best and people must be given the freedom to choose the best person for whatever they want done based on who can perform best … not on some arbitrary formula dreamed up by someone who believes that everything should be homogenous.

It is not so much women’s role in government which is producing the problems that loom in the world today, it is the nature of government itself – regardless of who (or what sex) it is comprised of.

Technorati Tags: women,government,laws,fred reed

How to get 2 Site Build It! businesses for the price of 1

2011-03-26T12:21:00.001-03:00

Have you been thinking about starting an internet business?

If so, you need to consider Site Build It! (SBI! 2.0)?

An NOW is the prime time to do it.

SBI has had a tradition of offering 2 SBI! subscriptions for the price of one every year at Christmas, but right now there is a 72 hour exception to this practice.

The reason is that Sitesell.com has been quickly rising on Facebook and at 9PM EST on March 25th, crossed over a 10,000 “Like” target.

To celebrate, they are offering this same 2-for-1 special offer for only 72 hours.

How can you best benefit from this offer?

1. Get 2 SBI! Sites for $299. Start right away on your first business and you have up to 9 months to activate the other one.

2. Split the cost with someone in your family or a friend – each of you gets an SBI! 2.0 site for less than $150.00. This is an incredible bargain when you count up all the training and collection of tools which are included in the price.

In both cases, follow this link and you’ll not only get Site Build It! 2.0 for half the price, I’ll guide you with personal coaching, if you want it.

Technorati Tags: SBI,site build it,2 for 1

A luxurious trip

2011-03-03T13:37:00.001-03:00

The image is an ad promoting a casino which is giving away a luxurious trip to Dubai. I saw the image above on a billboard as I was driving in to town in the morning and started thinking. What is so special about a trip to Dubai?

I know I have noticed the opulent luxury in some of the hotels and things which have been built in that country but apart from seeing what people with virtually unlimited funds can buy, I wonder of what value a trip there would be to anyone.

Certainly there is a lot of appeal to winning such a trip, but if a person isn’t in any position to be able to afford such opulence to begin with what would they get out of being exposed to it and being given a taste of it first hand?

Would this experience be satisfying to that person or would it create a feeling of resentment or longing for something which is so far out of their reach? Or perhaps, it might stimulate them to return to their normal surroundings and begin to splurge on luxuries which they couldn’t afford in the first place to try to prolong the illusion that they experienced in winning such a trip.

If, out of the blue, someone came up to me and offered me such a trip, I don’t think I’d hesitate in accepting it, but I know that I’m not likely to visit a casino (which I seldom do anyway) in the hopes that I might be the lucky winner.

From a purely marketing point of view, I would be curious to know how this promotion worked out in comparison to other campaigns which they’ve run to attract donations to their purse.

Technorati Tags: gambling,Dubai,luxury,travel,marketing

Life’s Challenges

2010-11-21T15:57:00.001-03:00

Today a posting by Steve Pavlina in Facebook where he stated:

The point of weight training is to get stronger, not to move hunks of metal up and down. Many of life's challenges are similar in nature.

brought to my mind an experiment I undertook in my own life to deal with challenges.

I was about to depart on an international flight from Canada to Chile which, in the past had always been a challenge. I recalled that every time I had taken that journey, there had always been un-expected problems which seemed to turn the trip into an unpleasant experience.

What I decided to do was to expect problems and see how capable I was at getting through them. In other words, rather than hope that everything would just go perfectly –or at least without any difficulties- I was actually looking forward to them as a challenge to my own capabilities.

Well, as it turned out there were unexpected things which would have been horrible under other circumstances, but when the first one came along (and there were several), my first reaction was to think: “Hey, this is my first problem of this trip … how am I going to handle it?”

I’m not sure if I had previously decided to expect more than one problem, but by dealing with each and then taking the attitude of “well that’s dealt with … now, what’s next” I wasn’t setting myself up to be suddenly smitten by another problem coming out of the blue when I “thought” I’d dealt with them all.

If we can establish this kind of thinking about everything in our lives, then life’s challenges will be no more onerous than adding another few pounds to the weight we’re trying to lift in a weight-training program.

Technorati Tags: steve pavlina,life,challenges,difficulty

What is policing?

2010-11-19T02:32:00.001-03:00

Today I made a stop at a Starbucks near to my residence to warm up on a cold day.

When I arrived I noticed 3 uniformed police officers at a table near the window.

I took my time, warming up and passing a few long minutes reading an interesting article on my Kindle and noticed that these officers didn’t seem in any hurry to leave and continue doing their duty.

Then I started thinking: What do police officers do when they are policing? In the end, I’m sure that these three officers were in this particular Starbucks well over an hour and while I wasn’t able to hear or observe anything about what they were up to, it didn’t seem to me to have much of a “policing” nature to it.

I’m not writing this to point fingers because I can’t say that these individuals were acting like typical police officers in this area, nor can I even conclude that what I saw was the way they acted on a regular basis.

All it did was get me to start thinking what it is that police officer do when they are policing and asking if what they do might be done well in a group of three sitting in a Starbucks cafe.

Technorati Tags: police officer,starbucks,kindle

Image South Australian police officer via Wikipedia

Calling spades spades

2010-10-10T17:01:00.001-03:00

To anyone who knows me it would not come as a surprise that I believe in the precepts of free-market capitalism (FMC).

T hat being said, it is also vital to recognize that I do not condone any and all actions that are taken or promoted under the banner of FMC. I also feel it is important to take into account the fact that there has never—ever—been a country which has been a 100% pure FMC economy.

To my recollection the USA, even at it’s very inception, was a mixture and it has moved more and more away from FMC every year even though it is popularly held up to be the exemplary model of FMC. Perhaps, it is still the most free of all the countries today—although there may be much reason to doubt that—it is still far from a pure FMC and should, in reality, be called something else.

With this background I wish to express some doubts that I’ve had in recent times which grow out of the increasing concerns—both in number and loudness—that I’ve been hearing about the movement of the US towards a socialistic or communistic economy.

The crux of my concern is the connection which is always shown between the horrible actions of major communistic movements in the past in terms of genocide and suffering.

The questions which I am asking is what is there in socialism or communism that is inherently violent, or that makes a nation which adopts these systems to start killing off people on a large scale.

Yes, we can look at a large sampling of nations and name leaders like Mao Zedong, Stalin, Hitler, Castro, etc and show that under them millions of people perished. I’m not arguing about these facts … but the thing that I am asking is whether it is the system that is at fault, or the person or people who were flawed.

From the evidence I’ve seen I have little doubt that the most efficient way for an economy to operate is the FMC model, but that, in itself, doesn’t make the other systems inherently evil, just as travelling in an ox cart is slower than a bicycle, comparing the two needs to be done on the basis of what you wish to achieve and not on the personalities of the famous people who have used ox carts or bicycles.

What this point of view raises is another issue which is possibly more vital to our future than the exact mixture of economic systems which we use: the issue is that some individuals are possibly much more inclined to abuse power than others.

With this in mind, then we need to concern ourselves with two points: 1) Identifying who are most likely to abuse power and 2) Limiting the power which they can have so as to limit the damage which they can do.

Technorati Tags: economics,USA,communism,socialism,free market

Coming back to haunt you

2010-10-10T16:46:00.001-03:00

I think that one of the greatest challenges we face in life is being honest with ourselves.

We may be conscious of using some deception or attempts to influence the thoughts of other, but somehow we even go to great lengths to avoid the fact that we may be doing

the same to ourselves.

When my children were small, I always attempted to teach them what I believed would be helpful to them in their lives, although I may not have always realized that there was some variance between what I said and what I did. You may remember the old saw: “Do as I say, not as I do.”

One of the things I frequently would say to my girls whenever they complained that some rule or outcome or event “wasn’t fair”, was “Who ever told you that life was fair?”, or as an alternative I’d say “Fare is what you pay to the bus driver.”

Recently I’ve moved from being an active worker into the realm of the retired, and as such, have felt that my life should be much more relaxed and free from obligations imposed by the needs and desires of others.

My wife, however, decided to take up employment where she was on call, and could be called at a pre-dawn hour to work. On a couple of occasions I was awakened and asked to drive her to her place of employment, arising several hours before I would have otherwise.

On one of these times I found myself thinking: “This isn’t fair! Now that I’m retired, why should I have to ‘work’ too, just so my wife could work”?

Then, as I was searching for the answer to that question, I recalled what I had attempted to instil into my children … now I have to decide: Do I live by my own teachings, or do I decide that I’d been wrong all that time?

Technorati Tags: teachings,honesty,values

Dynomighty Designs

2010-09-06T22:25:00.001-04:00

Dynomighty Design : Products - Mighty Wallets
I stumbled upon this while pursuing some links on a wholly unrelated topic. Oddly enough, I had been searching for a simple replacement wallet for a few weeks and had just, the day before I discovered this page, purchased something which met my needs. When I saw this product, I was intrigued and totally dissatisfied with my just-completed purchase. How I wish I'd delayed my purchase a couple of days.
Of course, this is not a major disaster or setback for me, but because I dislike unnecessary back tracking, frivolous waste, and duplicated effort, the issue is an annoyance for me.

What I find so interesting is the simplicity and inventiveness of the products which this company produces. The line of wallets which the company produces suggests that this is its biggest selling line but in addition they have several other ingenious products such as a bottle-top tripod, magenetic jewelery, desk pops, and sky vases.

Simplicity is, in my opinion, one of the things that makes many classic designs, products, and ideas so special.

Technorati Tags: products,wallets,simplicity,companies

You can say whatever you want

2010-08-03T11:45:00.001-04:00

A package of soymilk reads:

IT’S FREE! Silk Vanilla is free of lactose, dairy, cholesterol, eggs, casein, MSG and worries. You still have to pay for it though.

Before I get to my point, I’d like to say I love this product and find it an excellent replacement for regular milk.

The thought that struck me, when I read that statement on the package is that it seems so typical of what we hear everywhere in the media from politicians and about most everything. Statements are made which are the complete opposite of what they say …. and as long as the person somewhere, somehow, clarifies what they are saying, it is considered totally acceptable.

A defendant of this kind of action would likely state: “Why should a person be criticized just because a reader didn’t read on a bit further to learn the real, full meaning of what was said.”

I would tend to agree with that kind of defence, and yet I also see that there is a lack of trustworthiness demonstrated by the person who makes a statement of this nature, because he is relying on his own cleverness and his listeners’ lack of acuity to actually create a false impression which is serving his own ends and not those of his listeners.

It is tragic that this kind of thinking is too prevalent today.

Technorati Tags: advertising,politicians,language,honor,trust

Global Warming, Population growth, and Petroleum Reserves

2010-06-28T13:31:00.002-04:00

YouTube - The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See (part 1 of 8)

This professor has some impeccable math, and a very clear explanation of how it can be applied. I highly recommend it, however I do not agree with his logic. He doesn't take into account the fact that innumerable situations in which this kind of exponential growth have never occurred, that something -- usually completely unexpected -- have happened to prevent the disaster from culminating.

This does not excuse us from acting sensibly in dealing with issues which face us either now or in the future. Using the issue of global warming, as an example, whether or not you agree that it is a real problem, it does not make sense to continue to pollute our environment with abandon.

New Rules for the New Economy

2010-03-12T13:20:00.000-03:00

New Rules for the New Economy

A fascinating new viewpoint at how the world is changing...

Google Sidewiki entry by Jack

2010-03-11T17:35:00.001-03:00

International comments about tremors as new Chilean president is sworn in.

in reference to:

"Chile hit by powerful aftershocks"
- CBC News - World - Chile hit by powerful aftershocks (view on Google Sidewiki)

It’s Not What It Seems

2010-03-06T10:41:00.003-03:00

After having been woken every morning for the past week by having my bed shake, I’ve been led to re-think what we’ve all been told about the earthquake in Chile.

One conclusion that has come to me is that this was not a natural event. It is a man-made phenomena that comes from the testing of a secret government project to develop a national alarm clock!

To explain the various discrepancies which opponents of this theory might raise I offer the following explanations:

The massive quake on February 27th was an accidental result of the simultaneous activation of several separate shaker apparatuses.
The several hundred aftershocks were due to a malfunction of the control mechanism provoked by event Number 1.
The varied times are a combination of the damaged control mechanism and deliberate testing to determine the optimum shaker intensity required to awaken the maximum number of citizens at different times of the day and night.

If they can be located, sources close to the newly elected president of Chile, Sebastian Piñera, who is a well established entrepreneur, may indicate that the president-elect has been quick to recognize the potential commercial value of this program. Once the timing and intensity controls are perfected, it is said he has plans to licence the use of this technology to other countries whose economies need to be awakened.

Among the various benefits the new technology offers are:

The quick demolition of old and dilapidated buildings and neighbourhoods.
A final testing procedure of new buildings before they are occupied to ensure that they meet all anti-seismic standards.
Demolition of inadequate roads, bridges and transportation infrastructure.
A quick method of testing the moral character of large groups of people and identifying those with delinquent tendencies who participate in looting during simulated emergency conditions.
A process to stimulate and reactivate the construction industry.
A justification to use the manpower and machinery of a country’s armed forces in peace time without provoking any external conflicts.
A focal point to unite the citizens of a country toward a common national goal which supersedes political agendas.

It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?

Technorati Tags: chile,communication,emergency,earthquake,government,humor

My Wonderful, Useless Kindle

2010-03-03T11:44:00.003-03:00

I mentioned in my first post about the earthquake in Chile that I had just purchased a Kindle book reader from Amazon.

This marvellous piece of equipment has functioned perfectly from the day it arrived in early February and of all the communication possibilities I’ve had at my disposal since the earthquake on in the wee hours of February 27th, this is the only one that has not failed to work.

This device is lightweight and easy to transport, it consumes little power, once charged it runs for a long period and can be recharged relatively quickly. I have never, to date, attempted to connect to their network and not been able to make a connection to either the Kindle store or to Wikipedia.

There is the nub of the marvel and the worthlessness of this piece of equipment. While I’ve been able to connect when the regular internet, cell phones, fixed phones, television and power systems failed, the device has not permitted me to send or receive any personal or specific information.

For example, as I sit here at using my laptop computer to compose this blog, I have to save it for some future moment when I might connect to the internet, but my Kindle, sitting at my side, is connected to Wikipedia telling me the latest news which has been posted about the Chile disaster. (The web browser is “not available” in Chile.)

It occurred to me that possibly if I searched for a book title such as “Help! Earthquake in Chile” that it might be noticed by someone. I did so, and maybe it was noticed … however, not in any way which I can verify.

The fact is that the technology is there now. It is in place and working now. All that is necessary is for Amazon, or other companies to implement some sort of emergency trigger that would allow a person in a critical situation to enter in some kind of key phrase or even use a certain special button to be immediately connected to an operator who could attend to the request and assist.

Whether this service would be free, an optional extra which would be charged for if used, or completely without cost is not important. What is important is to recognize the tremendous service and and potential which this marvellous machine now has, and to set up some way to put it into practice.

Technorati Tags: chile,earthquake,emergency,Amazon,Kindle,communication

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2010-03-03T11:44:00.001-03:00

The extreme conditions of the Chilean earthquake serve to reveal the character of the people and to make one wonder about one’s own convictions.

Imagine a service station with cars lined up for blocks in both directions for hours and, after several hours in the line the electricity which operates the pumps is cut.

Apart from the cars lined up in both directions, people are arriving on foot carrying gas cans. There’s a line of cans in front of one of the pumps. Each new arrival, looks around, and places their can in the line –– possibly marking it in some way to distinguish it from others which look the same.

Since I had been in the vehicle line and the power was cut just as I stopped in front of the pumps, I was in a perfect position to watch this line grow along with the actions of the people who participated.

No one seemed inclined to try to jump their can to a more favourable position in the line … it was a model of respect, order and patience that would satisfy the most stringent standards.

The Bad

One of the bad characteristics I’ve observed came from the various TV reports which have been broadcast in which reporters interview people from all areas and in all sorts of circumstances about how they’ve been affected by this catastrophe.

Certain people, it seemed to me, mostly in the larger urban areas, showed a common reaction to their situations saying things like “I’ve lost everything, when is somebody going to do something?”, or “Whose going to fix this? Who’s going to be held responsible.”

In short it was an attitude of “I’m suffering” and “Somebody has to take care of me.”

In my estimation these reactions seemed most common in young to middle-aged adults and in large urban areas.

In contrast, it seemed that older people and quite generally most people in either small towns or in rural areas seemed to be simply confused, distraught or dismayed by their plight and their losses … but they did not seem to be expecting that someone else was going to – or should – show up to fix everything up again.

The Ugly

The really ugly side of people seems to be almost entirely confined to concentrated urban areas.

I see this in the areas where electricity and water has been cut off for several days, where stores have been closed for lack of electricity and dangerous structural damages.

Extensive looting started, according to some reports just minutes after the first earthquake and TV cameras recorded people breaking open warehouses, carrying out every imaginable type of merchandise from plasma TVs to grocery carts completely filled with liquor, video games, cell phones, etc.

In these areas the army has been called in and a curfew has been established, yet people in residential areas banded together with poles, garden tools, guns, knives and whatever other implement might be used for defence to set up patrols on their streets and protect their homes from midnight marauders.

I see this state of affairs as a very ugly aspect of humanity, and yet I find myself wondering how I might act if I were to find myself in some of the situations that people are in when they resort commit these acts of looting.

Imagine yourself, possibly with a hungry child, a brother or sister who is badly injured, without water, without electricity, your house devastated, you are sleeping on the street, your vehicle has been crushed under a wall which collapsed, there are no stores open, no banks operating ….

Does it make you think, too?

More Chilean Earthquake Experiences

2010-03-02T09:10:00.000-03:00

Another day has passed and my life-after the earthquake hasn’t changed much.

I’m still suffering from intermittent Internet Withdrawal.

Thousands of people have either partially or completely lost their homes due to this event. Part of the damage was directly from the quake, others from the tsunami which hit the coast only minutes following the principal shock.

I mentioned in my previous post I’ve found the rapid action on the part of the government and the infrastructure very impressive on the positive side. Some large communities are still without electric power and water, but considering the extensive damages, I feel it would be difficult to imagine any country who could do better than what Chile is doing now.

For me, and for many thousands of people the most immediate and devastating effect of this event is the simple lack of gasoline to allow one to travel about as they would normally do.

I mentioned that I escaped to a resort area, Lican Ray, because there was electricity, food and lodgings available to me. Yesterday I went to the only gas station in town and after waiting about 1/2 hour in line, discovered that they had run out of gas.

This morning, I learned that gas had arrived, when I saw the length of the line which had already formed, I asked the manager of the station if it was worthwhile to get into line and was assured that there would be enough gas for everyone lined up so far.

After I was in line, I checked to see that I had my wallet and discovered I’d left it back at the Inn. I asked the driver of the car behind me if he would look after my place in line and move my car forward when the line moved, and he agreed.

I walked back to the Inn and got my wife to drive me back, and she entered the end of the line about 5 cars behind where I was. Slowly the line inched forward.

I knew before I reached the pump that sales were limited to 10,000 pesos (about 15 litres) of fuel per vehicle, but I didn’t know that they were only accepting cash. I only had enough cash to pay for my car, but not enough to pay for my wife’s ration.

As a result when I reached the pump my car wasn’t served immediately until I got the OK from the station manager to receive my cheque to pay for both my car and my wife’s.

She OK’d my cheque and I went back to the pump to pass it to the operator. When I arrived, the electric power was cut!

I was number one in the line and I couldn’t get gas! We decided to keep our places until the power was resumed…the wait was over 3 hours until power was finally resumed.

In summary, not a great adventure, but it is a situation where it seems that for me, and a great number of people who I spoke with or overheard while waiting in the line for gas, we just have to remain calm, be patient and slowly work our ways back into positions and areas where we can contribute to the great reparations which are going to be needed in the country over the next few months.

Technorati Tags: chile,earthquake

Living through an earthquake

2010-02-28T16:08:00.000-03:00

The bed was shaking. To the right, to the left, from the foot upward, from the head down. Left, right, upm down over and over. It was pitch dark, I could hear things falling to the floor, yet I was not terrified. On and on went the shaking, the dial on my phosphorescent watch read around 4:30.

The shaking seemed never-ending. A pair of table lamps fell from my headboard to the floor. After what I guessed was between 5 and ten minutes movement finally stopped.

I groped about and located a flashlight I kept near the bed and turned it on, found my glasses and moved the light around the room. Two lamps were on the floor, nothing else seemed out of place, no cracks or openings in the wall or ceiling joints, no windows broken or cracked.

The rest of the house was somewhat of a shambles, but I found nothing broken except for an old cedar chest whose spindly legs had collapsed.

I located my cell phone and attempted to call my wife. “Connection error” was the message my phone returned. Same thing with a call to the electric company’s emergency line.

I returned to my bed and as I sat on the side, I felt some further movement, considerably milder than my first shaking.

The phone rang. The screen told me it was my sister-in-law but as soon as I pressed the connect button the phone went dead with another “connection error” on the screen. Attempts to return the call brought the same results.

I tried to sleep, but it was like laying in the bunk of a moving train. I could never sleep on a train and I didn’t succeed sleeping as much as I tried. (In the next 24 hours over 110 after shocks would be recorded).

Soon after daylight broke I dressed. Showering was impossible since without electricity my water system was useless. Thanks to a rechargeable shaver I was able to clean my face a bit.

I picked up several fallen lamps around the house as well as several bottles and ornaments which had fallen to the floor. The inside of most cupboards were in complete disarray and I discovered ONE broken glass among the total disorder in the house. No structural damage was evident anywhere.

A quick breakfast of fresh fruit and I attempted to phone all the contacts in my phone starting from the top. After a dozen attempts one phone rang and a Canadian friend answered. He, too, was without power and had felt the quaking, but was without any damage or injuries. No further calls produced any results.

Suddenly my guard-dog, Kelly, started whining excitedly which was strange for him. I looked out and saw him beside the gate and in the distance my gardener was approaching on foot. I realized that he had been considerably more terrified by the shaking which had gone on through the night than I was, and he was just happy to see somebody that he knew come to assure him that things might be OK.

I entered my car and struck out for town, looking about for any evidence of disarray or destruction in the 9 km route to town. The first I noticed was that the approach to the bridge entering Villarrica was barricaded and that traffic was re-routed to a new bridge which had earlier been redirected for use only by traffic leaving town. I could see little evidence of damage to the old bridge as we crossed the new one, but there was a policeman stationed at the intersection on the other side to direct traffic away from that crossing.

The gas gauge, read about 1/4 tank so I decided to take an alternate route and pass by the service station to fill up before I arrived at my business. When I arrived at the entrance to the station, there was already a line up which stretched some three blocks to the south. Innocently, I decided to leave the gasoline for a later moment and proceeded directly to my shop.

A large bus was blocking the street as I approached my parking place so I had to proceed with caution to the place where I left my car. Because of the obstruction I hadn’t noticed that a small dwelling beside the bus had completely collapsed.

On arrival at the shop, where we distribute tires and batteries, I noticed little out of the ordinary, and since it was Saturday and before 10:00 it didn’t even seem odd that the doors were still closed.

On entering, I noticed some display stands turned over and a few piles of tires had fallen, but it wasn’t till I ascended to my second-floor office that I was able to appreciate the complete shambles which confronted me there with all of the books which lined two wall almost all scattered about on the floor.

My secretary had started to put things back into order, and apart from telling me that there was no electricity could not tell me much more about the general state of affairs. The fixed line phone system was partially working but no internet connections were available.

The 30 high sign which stood on a 1 foot steel pole was leaning against the building, slightly inclined down to where the welding on the pole had broken some 7 feet above the ground. Any further strong shaking could easily dislodge the massive sign and bring it crashing down. We had to find a welder who had his own electrical generator to make repairs.

Aftershocks continued, at what seemed to me on an almost regular schedule. Since the early morning I had the impression that there were regular shakes occurring more or less every hour on the hour.

There was no sense in opening since we depended on electricity for most of our services and I sent a couple of employess off to try to find a welder with a generator when phoning produced no results.

I walked down to the service station on the corner to see if the line had diminished and saw it was longer than before. I spoke to a police man who informed me that one of the highway to Valdivia was impassable due to a 15 meter wide rupture but that other roads were passable. The problem with travel was not so much the roads but the availability of gasoline as evidenced by the line at this station … and the fact that some stations would be without any fuel at all.

My secretary suggested that it would be an idea to use a gas can she had in her car to purchase at least 10 litres of gas, but when we sent someone to the station they refused, saying that only vehicles were being filled, and that we’d have to get into line. Knowing the owner, nor being a regular customer wasn’t of any use.

We were on the point of setting out to join in the line when I decided to send someone to inquire how much fuel they had left. It didn’t make much sense to me to get into a line of several hundred cars only to have the station run out of gas before we reached the pumps. It turned out that while we were making the inquiry, the pumps ran dry and no word was available as to when the tanker would arrive to refill their supply.

I managed to communicate with my wife at her Inn in Lican Ray and learned that she had electric power re-established. Since no word was available from the local power company as to when power would be available in the town or the rural area where my house was situated, I decided to drive there in spite of the limited fuel I had. At least we would have electricity, water and a stock of food for a few days.

Up to that point, the only thing that I had been able to learn about the general situation in the country was from a neighbour who had learned from his car radio that the epicentre of the quake seemed to be near Concepcion where a force of over 8 on the Richter scale had been registered.

A walk around Villarrica revealed relatively little damages. The small dwelling about three doors down from my shop and another small construction where a cement wall had fallen down were the only damages of houses we observed. A large store, which had been in a very old, poorly constructed building had suffered considerable damages. Most businesses, likely for the lack of electricity, kept their doors closed.

Before I left to drive to Lican Ray I was surprised to have my phone ring showing a number which I didn’t recognize on the screen. I answered and wonder of wonders, was speaking to a friend from Ecuador who had heard of the quake and was concerned for our well-being.

I assured him that we were physically in good shape but almost without any communication and knowledge of the rest of the country. He assured me he’d communicate with my two daughters to put them at ease over our well-being.

There was one minor fissure in the highway from Villarrica to Lican Ray which hardly was noticeable and only one structure, a local handicrafts store, had a canopy over the entrance which had obviously collapsed.

On arriving I drove by the town’s single gas station, in the hopes that it might be operating and have little or no line up. This line was only slightly shorter than the ones at Villarrica’s stations. I chose to go directly to the Inn and wait til things had stabilized a bit before trying to get gas.

How Amazon could Help

Just a couple of weeks back I had purchased a Kindle e-book reader from Amazon. Since I had not established with any external or national source I decided to see if it’s wireless connection was working and discovered that I could connect with the on-line store.

It occurred to me that I might register a plea for help by putting in a search for a book called “Help Major Earthquake in Chile” The search did not produce any results, as I rather expected, but still I hoped that someone might review their logs and might somehow trace the origin of the message to my general whereabouts.

Even if it didn’t work, this seems to me an excellent potential for assistance in disaster situations perhaps by establishing a special code which would allow the contact to be routed for special handling.

Next I decided to do a search on Wikipedia for Chile Earthquakes and was amazed to discover the extensive information which had already been published by them about the size, extent and general overview of the situation, barely 12 hours after it had taken place.

I have managed to connect, very briefly to the internet to send out a short email to many of my friends and relatives who might have concerns about what is happening but that connection was short lived.

I’ve seen, on TV locally the enormous effort which the country and the government is making to re-establish a basic level of normality to the situation, and must say that from what I’ve seen so far, it is very impressive over how well they’ve been able to handle the situation, especially in light of the estimates I’ve read which estimate this earthquake to be over 500 times that which has recently devastated Haiti.

The government has declared that the entire country is in a state of catastrophe with over 13 million persons affected. While I don’t mean to diminish what this has meant to others who have suffered losses far in excess of what we’ve experienced, I do believe that the “affect” which most people have seen here is likely much more like mine than the few which have been featured and dramatized by much of the news media. Personally, my greatest agony, I think, has been from Internet withdrawal. I hope my story serves as a useful counterpoint.

Technorati Tags: earthquake,chile,villarrica,lican ray,disaster,internet withdrawal

The Ad Runs!

2009-06-20T06:11:00.000-04:00

The “objectionable” photo in the ad I tried to run on Facebook was modified to fall within their standards.

Here’s the version of the ad which was approved.

Same image but with the color taken out. It would be interesting to know if this was approved by the same person who rejected the earlier ad, or if another person with a bit more open frame of mind OK’d this one.

No sense of humor

2009-06-19T13:49:00.002-04:00

Today I was shocked to discover that Facebook, or at least some of the people who work there are far too serious … perhaps even to the extent of being prudish.

This all began several months ago, when I created a group on Facebook called I used to have a bellybutton and described it as a just for fun – totally pointless group to encourage others to post true facts which don’t make any sense. (I might add that I “lost” my own BB a couple of years ago during major surgery and occasionally joke about my “loss”.)

Recently, I decided to promote this group out of curiosity to see how many other people also might share my condition.

I applied to Facebook to run an ad promoting the group and displaying the above photo only to have it rejected with the following explanation:

The image of this ad is either irrelevant or inappropriate. Per sections 3 and 8 of Facebook's Advertising Guidelines, the image on your ad should be relevant and appropriate to the item being advertised. Images that are overly explicit, provocative, or that reveal too much skin are not allowed. Images that may either degrade or idealize any health condition or body type are also not allowed.

I didn’t particularly feel that the image was too risqué, however, I changed the picture and tried again with the following ad:

Again, the ad was rejected on the same grounds.

To me, the whole idea of seeing if there are others who share my condition was a bit of a lark, but the reactions of the people who run Facebook’s ads seems to me exceedingly conservative.

What do you think?

Fighting Ecology

2009-06-11T15:50:00.004-04:00

Michael Phillips has written a blog encouraging us to fight Ecology, in which he urges us to do things which are inconvenient for ecologists.

While I am a sort of rebel at heart, and have committed some utterly stupid things in my life because I resented being told what to do, I don't feel I can wholeheartedly endorse Phillip's position.

When he points out that some of the things which have been done in the name of ecology which have produced negative effects, such as the increase in the world's affilictions for malaria in underdeveloped countries because DDT has been banned worldwide, I agree.

But when it comes to increasing the use of Styrofoam simply because ecologists are trying to ban them, I feel that is senseless.

Banning airports, which restrict result in travel restrictions, and congestion in airports, may not be convenient to Phillips, but at the same time, I believe that if there are costs which affect others in expanded airports (such as noise, air pollution, greater car traffic congestion) these costs need to be met and paid for by the people who directly benefit from the expansion.

It is not always easy to get the benefit users to pay for all the costs of a particular service, and it is quite likely that some of the costs may not even be known until many years after something has been put into place, but that doesn't mean that we need to place roadblocks into the path of development simply because we cannot foresee the dangers which lie in the future.

In the end I object to and resist laws imposed by politicians based on vested interests, either for or against specific interests and I fear we have far too many laws which do exactly this.

Somewhere I remember reading about a proposition that ALL LAWS should automatically expire after a certain period of time unless they are specifically renewed by the legislators. This could go a long way in at least providing a way to escape from many of the senseless laws that do more harm than good, or benefit only specific vested interests which are not apparent when the laws were passed.

Pro Commerce: This puts it together

2009-05-12T13:22:00.000-04:00

Pro Commerce: This puts it together

Michael Phillips points out that most young people tend to favor socialism over capitalism (or commerce), tending to think of the latter as inherently evil.

The problem, in my opinion, is not that capitalism is inherently evil, but rather that what is popularly known as capitalism is not what true free-market capitalism is -- or could -- be.

The US is popularly thought of as the foremost modle of a free ecomomy, but the truth is that is is not -- and has NEVER been -- a free market economy (FME), and it is my guess that virtually all of the defects which are attributed to the FME are actually due to attempts to control the economy rather than letting natural forces run their course.

Sample Blog with Windows Live Writer

2009-05-08T03:14:00.001-04:00

This is an effort to see what can be accomplished in this blog using Windows Live Writer.

We can add photos and manipulate them in several ways.

The text can be manipulated also and tables can be added

left	right
1	11

Devaluation in the works?

2009-02-28T10:18:00.003-03:00

In watching the TV reports of the US budget along with all the commentary and analysis I was suddenly stuck by an odd realization: This year is two thousand nine, next year is twenty-ten. What happened to the other one thousand nine hundred and eighty (2000 less 20)?

I realize that this is an acceptable alternative way of speaking about the year, but still it strikes me a bit odd that for the first 9 years of this centry we used one form and then in the 10th year we switch to another. Is there any rational explanation for this?

There's another thing that occurred to me in mulling this over. Maybe, this is the way the politicians plan to deal with the massive debt and deficits which the US government is running and planning. Divide a trillion by 100 and it becomes 10 billion. Doesn't sound quite as bad, does it?

Is the US dollar going to be devalued during the Obama administration?

7 million miles of toothpaste wasted!

2009-01-23T12:59:00.001-03:00

There's a web site that deals exclusively with toothpaste, if you're interested in picking up a lot of trivia about a very common household commodity: Toothpasteworld - World's Largest Toothpaste Collection. Also see Toothpaste in Wikipedia

Colgate, Proctor and Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, and Unilever, which manufacture the major brands sold around the world, are among the largest companies on the globe today.

If you stop to think about it, there is an incredible about of toothpaste consumed every day.

I don't know if anyone has ever tried to calculate the actual consumption but let's make a rough attempt. In almost every ad and photo you see of toothpaste in use, a strip of about 1inch is spread on the brush. At this moment, the world population is somewhere over 6.8 billion people. If we suppose that only 25% of the people in the world use toothpaste, and that they only brush one time per day, the world consumption of toothpaste is a strip which measures some 26, 830 miles EVERY DAY!

That's more than one complete circumference of the globe.

What's the point of this?

From my own experience, I've discovered that you don't need 1" of toothpaste to effectively brush your teeth. In fact, I even have my doubts if you really need it at all, so long as you do brush your teeth regularly. But, in my own case I have found that just 1/4" of toothpaste does a very nice and refreshing job of cleaning in my mouth.

So, if the world's population were to reduce their use of this product to the level I have found effective, we could conserve all the resources and energy which is needed to make 20,123 miles of toothpaste each day. The annual savings would me more than 7 million miles of toothpaste.

Just one simple, small change which is within the capacity of everyone without any cost or inconvenience could add up to significant impact.

About Cantaloupe and dietary fiber

2009-01-23T12:06:00.004-03:00

For years I've been hearing about dietary fiber which is also called roughage or bulk.

My American Heritage Dictionary define this as:

Coarse, indigestible plant matter, consisting primarily of polysaccharides such
as cellulose, that when eaten stimulates intestinal peristalsis.

I can remember family members who had problems with their digestion buying something in the pharmacy which looked to me to be nothing more than some kind of seed (I believe the product was called Metamucil, or something similar).

What stuck me as odd then, and even now was that many people I know who have had a problem with their digestion, always removed the seeds when they ate watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), whereas I simply swallowed them whole whenever I encountered them.

If our body actually needs a certain amount of indigestible plant matter, it didn't make much sense to remove them from what we ate, especially if they weren't unpleasant or difficult to ingest.

Over the past few years, I've started eating the seeds of cantaloupe (Cucumis melo var. reticulatus)too, also without chewing. When I first tried it, they seemed a bit repulsive as I scooped up a spoonful from the center of the fruit, mostly due to their "strange" appearance and the fact that -- by custom -- I had previously consider them to be garbage.

Now that I've become accustomed to eating them, I consider them to be the most delectable part of the fruit. The membrane which surrounds them is generally quite juicy and has a much more intense flavor than the remainder of the flesh.

On top of everything, I believe I'm helping my intestinal processes and have never had a single one one sprout while still inside me.

Respect and Authority

2008-12-19T10:16:00.004-03:00

This morning I was thinking about respect for authority and wondering if there is more, or less respect for authority than there used to be.

In my case, I think I respect authority less than I used to, mainly because I've learned, over the years, to think for myself. Any authority that I do respect must earn my respect. I do not respect authority simply because they are --or are called-- authorities.

That being said, I do not run around deliberately or flagrantly acting contrary to laws, or what the government authorities say I should do, there are other reasons that might make me act in a way that would make it appear that I do respect authority.

In the case of many laws and regulations, my reason to act in seeming conformity to them, may be simply because I feel that the complications to my life for not conforming are more than the benefit I might perceive from doing otherwise.

There is another aspect of my superficial respect for authority. I have a practice of treating most people with respect, because I respect them as people until they give me some reason to not respect them. So, I may be entirely polite and deferential to someone who might consider my actions as respect for their position where, in reality, I am simply giving them the benefit of the doubt because I don't really know them as a person.

Much of the turmoil we see in society around us these days is, I believe, due to the fact that people in positions of authority are confused with this relationship between authority and respect. The respect does not come from the authority, nor is there anything inherent in authority that leads to a person automatically respecting it.

Respect must be earned, authority can be given or taken by anyone for any good or bad reason. Much too often, authority is abused, and for that reason, people as they are more and more exposed to that abuse, tend to respect authority less. This can reach extremes where authority completely looses meaning.

Contrepreneur

2008-11-28T12:20:00.009-03:00

con'·tre·pre·neur n. A person who habitually uses deceit, deception, and misrepresentation to earn a profit in a business venture.
--con'tre·pre·neur'i·al adj.
--con'tre·pre·neur'i·al·ism or con'tre·pre·neur'ism n.
--con'tre·pre·neur"ship' n.

Today, I'm coining a new word, to describe people like Robert Metzler, president of Allstate's of America, Inc., a Miami, company which I have had the misfortune to deal with.

Although Metzler, may be the world's first contrepreneur, he is not necessarily the best, or even the first contrepreneur to exisit, but simply the first to be described by this term which combines the term "con man" with "entrepreneur".

I believe we need a term for this kind of business person, because, although they are in the minority, we all have had, or will have an encounter with this type sometime in our lives and unfortunately the bad taste which we are left with as a result of such an experience, tends to seriously taint our feelings about business people as a whole.

After having my experience with Bob Metzler and his company Allstate's of America, Inc., located in Miami, I had considerable difficulty in comprehending how such a deceitful operator could continue to operate for 34 years, as Metzler claims. (Or was his 30 plus years in business just part of his story?)

As I thought about this, and gathered more information in my quest to seek some retribution from my dealings several things became clear to me that explains how a person so unethical can continue to operate for such a long period with impunity.

Metzler acquires discarded, replaced or damaged automotive service machinery and equipment, cleans and paints it, and resells it as supposedly reconditioned, tested and guaranteed equipment. In this sense, he is providing a wanted service to the owners of the obsolete equipment, taking it off their hands and providing them some payment for it.

Next, he specializes in exporting. A significant portion of what he sells is shipped out of the US, to countries where equivalent new equipment would be considerably more expensive than the used alternatives he offers.

Most of this equipment is heavy and bulky. Shipping it is expensive and the importation of these things into their destined markets is both fraught with red-tape, and expensive duties and taxes.
There are no existing laws or agencies which regulate and enforce standards of quality, warranties and general compliance with sales/purchase agreements. Agencies such as the Miami Better Business Bureau (which rates his business with it's lowest "F") and the State of Florida's Consumer Affairs Office, do not have any authority to do anything apart from attempt to communicate with the business and request a voluntary reconcilliation. This is in spite of the fact that the BBB has a long list of un-resolved complaints against this business.

According to Detective Kenneth Joseph with the Economic Crimes unit of the Miami Police, no US police force would respond to any complaint against Mr. Metzler as long as he shipped something -- anything -- in return for payment.

While the cost of most of his equipment is expensive, much of it running to several thousand dollars per item, it is not a mass market and the absolute total value of his transactions is not large enough to justify the cost of legal action either on an individual basis or even as a class action. The cost for a foreign complaint to attempt court ordered resolution in small claims court is prohibitive.

The fruits of Metzler's fraud are not of much interest to any news media who would reach other potential victims. This is no mass consumer problem or multi-million dollar fiasco that affect thousands. Local news media are likely to turn a deaf ear to reports of wrong doing because the only outcome would be loss of local jobs and purchases from local businesses. National and international media are too sophisticated to focus on a miniscule ripple in a distant, backward nation who should be thankful that cast-off American products are available in the first place.

So there you have it, the formula through which for anyone with limited scruples to find a lucrative niche .

Provide some limited service to somebody in the community.

Caters to a hungry market which is outside the base community.

Sells products which involves considerable extra expense to receive.

Operates in activity in which there is no regulation.

Police have no jurisdiction.

Legal action involves high costs.

Scale small enough that news media are not interested.

The internet now offers us some tools which may help to make these contrepreneurs better known. Two that I know of are Ripoff Report, and My 3 Cents which allow individuals to publicially expose these kinds of operations. I encourage everyone to use these kinds of opportunities to avoid falling prey to contrepreneurs and to spread the word so that the world becomes more aware of their activities.

Anyone who is interested in the sordid details of my dealings with Metzler and Company can find them at:

Seizure of Arms stashes

2008-09-10T13:29:00.003-04:00

Every time I see a TV news report of a seizure of an illegal arms stash, I find myself being amazed at the attitude of the reporters who seem to build up the idea that the public is being relieved of a tremendous threat to their safety. But never do these reporters ever try to answer the question: "Why do these stash of arms exist?"

To me it seems that the reasons criminals accumulate arms is because they want to be prepared for a possible confrontation with armed opposition, which quite often might include those people who legally have the right to have extensive arms ar their disposal ... that is to say law enforcement agencies.

What I'm thinking is that if authorities in any country did not possess extensive and powerful armed weapons, then those who oppose them, or who might wish to, wouldn't go to the bother of building up their firepower.

This line of thinking is an extension of the idea that violence begets violence, and while it might be argued that the legitimate arms holder only have their arms in order to do their jobs and protect the public from anti-social elements, it might also be true that if they weren't armed in the first place the criminals wouldn't be as violent as they appear to be.

I don't claim to have the answer to the elimination of violence in the world, but I do believe we need to start looking for ways of stopping the bullies without resorting to the same tactics which the bullies use so that our "good" bully beats up the "bad" bully. Sooner, or later the good bully is going to be tempted to abuse his power and when he does he will be the bad boy.

The Woman in the other time zone

2008-05-02T14:10:00.002-04:00

Last night I had a most fascinating dream.

I dreamed I was beginning an intimate relationship with an exotic woman who told me that she, and her entire family lived in a different time zone. She explained that they did this to constantly remind themselves that they were different from the rest of the people around them.

I became acquainted with her when she came to do some work for me. What I didn't know until we began our relationship was her different time zone. In effect she was living one hour different from me. If I asked her to come to work for me at 8 am she arrived on time, but it was 7am in the world in which she lived and while I thought she finished the day a 4pm, she was leaving at 3pm according to her watch.

She told me, that if she committed herself to me, she would be willing to live in my time zone, but if I wanted to really become accepted by her family I'd have to adopt their time zone.

Of course this was just a dream, but it seems to me that the idea could be expanded into an interesting story or novel. If anyone is inspired by the idea, please feel free to use it ... and let me know: I'd be delighted to read what you come up with.

How To Leave A Trackback

2008-03-21T12:08:00.001-03:00

I wonder if I will ever see a day when I'm not amazed by something or other on the internet.
Well, today, I've just learned about Trackback from Marcus Hochstadt. How To Leave A Trackback In this blog he demonstates how this works byproviding this link to where his learning all began, which was a blog entry by Kirsten Farris. You want to learn about Trackback too? Do what I did, and follow these links. Then try it out, maybe by tracking back here where YOU first started your lesson.

In this blog environment the link you use for trackback is named "Permalink". You can right-click on it and copy it's content to use in the post you want to make.

An irony of life

2007-11-08T11:57:00.000-03:00

I just realized recently that one of the great ironies of life is that when you finally reach the stage where you can have the privilege of parking next to the door, your doctor insists that you park two or three blocks away in order to get more exercise!

The other side of the coin

2006-06-01T12:32:00.000-04:00

Keywords:

Humor,

wikipedia,

Uncyclopedia

Recently I've been spending a lot of time fooling around at the Uncyclopedia ( http://uncyclopedia.org/)

I suppose there are some who would say that I've been wasting my time, but I differ in as much as I believe that humor is an essential part of living a good life.

The Uncyclopedia is a wiki, founded as a spoof of Wikipedia, which is in my opinion one of the really great marvels of the Internet. If you're not familiar with it, I'd encourage you to use it and what's more participate. It seems a bit daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's quite easy.

Surely you know something about some thing which is unique, or special, and you may also have some need to exercise your sense of humor which is just like any other ability we have: if you don't use it, you loose it.

Try them both, I'm sure you'll find it time well spent.

Confusion about profits

2006-05-04T12:32:00.000-04:00

Keywords:

profit, economics,

prejudice, commerce,

business,

spyware, adware

Recently I've become involved in a project which involves publishing books on various topics. One of the books deals with adware and spyware, which is a hot topic of much concern these days to most everyone who has a computer connected to the internet.

One of the most frequent objections I noted to spyware/adware is that the intruding software collects data which may be private and confidential and that this may then be used by some unknown party to earn a profit!

What I find strange about this attitude is that it seems to imply that if the person using the information were not using it to make a profit it might not be sooo bad, perhaps even acceptable.

There is a prejudice rampant in the eyes of many people that equates profit with something evil. I cannot accept this and I don't believe that anybody who has ever thought about it very much would stick with that attitude. Yes, there may be greedy people who seek to make unreasonable profits, and there are too many people who seek to make profits using illegal, immoral or unethical means to do so, but that does not make profits, nor the wish to earn them bad.

In fact, if we look at the way history has developed, a very great amount of the progress which we have enjoyed over the time we have been civilized has beed due to people who have sought to make a profit by providing some kind of product or service which other people wanted, and the lure of profits was the incentive which gave many entrepreneurs the spark they needed to invent or provide new and better solutions to old problems.

Returning to the issue of adware/spyware, I agree that much of it is a menace today not because private information is used to make a profit but simply because it is used, without permission, and that it is gathered often without the awareness of the person who is being targeted using his own resources without agreement. The issue of profit is simply incidental.

To pee or not to pee. That is the paradox of parsley

2006-03-03T14:17:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

Parsley, bladder disorders,

Prostate Enlargement,

nocturnal urination

I feel sure that even Shakespeare would not be unhappy with the licence I've taken with one of his famous lines when it's pointed out that after men pass the age of 50, it is very common for them to experience the need to get up several times during the night to urinate..

This is, at the very least, an annoyance, and in the worst of cases symptomatic of some serious problems.

If you are experiencing this you need to know about parsley.

The paradox is that while parsley is a diuretic, which means that aids in the elimination of liquid from the body, drinking a small amount of a tea prepared boiling a handful of parsley (preferably fresh) in about a quart or liter of water, will cut down on the number of times you will feel the need to get up in the night to visit the bathroom.

I don't know where I first learned about this, but I've tried it, and I find that if I brew up about a liter of the tea and keep it in the fridge, drinking about 2 wine glasses of this a day, my need to get up in the night, is at least cut down by half, and I can often pass an entire night without making those little excursions.

The flavor is not particularly disagreeable, and you may even find it pleasant once you get used to it.

Parsley, in different forms has various other health benefits, but this use alone puts it near the top of my list of favorite vegetables.

Microsoft Giving away Pendrives

2006-03-03T13:35:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

Microsoft, Windows,

pendrive,

marketing survey

As a reward for responding to a questionaire concerning licencing of Windows by corporate users, Microsoft is giving away a pendrive with supposedly "useful information" recorded on it. If you'd like to respond to the survey use this link: Mystery Solved See the icon on the right side of the screen. Oh, you must be a US resident to qualify.

Naturally Ridiculous - 100%

2006-02-27T11:40:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

Natural, man-made,

advertising, promotion,

language

For quite some time I've been ruminating about why we have become so fixated on things which are "natural".

Yesterday, at the Music Festival in Viña del Mar in Chile, Tonka Tomicic was selected as the festival's queen on a platform of being a 100% Natural Model.

Now, I'm not in the least bit criticising her, and even find what I've seen of her personality most appealing but 100% Natural is ridiculous!

Like almost all uses of this phrase that we see today, it is liberally interpreted to apply to the subject in the way which the promoter finds convenient, but other aspects are completely ignored or considered irrelevant.

However attractive and delightful this woman is I would not be the least bit surprized if she had had orthodontic work done sometime in her life, if she had died, tinted or colored her hair (it certainly was cut by someone), had depilated her body, and either performed or been subjected to any number of processes or practices in her lifetime that are anything but "natural" in the purest sense of the word.

In fact, I'd dare to guess that if any person, man or woman, were to be presented to the public who was truely and completly natural in every possible way the result would not be pleasing at all.

The other day I noticed on a packge of peanuts and raisins the sticker "Oil-free, 100% Natural" and had to ask myself, what is natural about finding salt on raisins and peanuts wrapped in a plastic container?

Why are natural shampoos supposedly better? In nature, cavemen washed their hair with nothing more than water -- if they washed it at all!

I think we can find in our daily lives many examples of things, from foods to medicines and various practices where not only do we prefer a man-modified version but might even find that the result we desire from it is better in the artificial, synthetic version that the natural one.

Why have we fixated on this idea that anything man-made is less desireable than what is found in nature?

In practice, I think that many combinations of man-made and natural things end up producing the most desired and attractive result. Man has a capacity to "improve" on what nature provides. Sometimes, perhaps too often, he errs or doesn't notice his incomplete understanding of some natural phenomena, but that doesn't mean that it is better to drop everything that he has done and return to a natural state.

We have the capability to learn from our mistakes, so if we discover some instance where a natural version seems better than a fabricated one, let's use that as a opportunity to learn more about what we might improve on, instead of rejecting the natural intelligence which we have been given.

Half a Century Old -- Almost!

2006-02-18T10:56:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

Visa, Credit Cards,

attitude,

Mickey Mouse

I recall that many people were shocked when they learned their favorite cartoon character, Mickey Mouse, was 50 years old. That was in 1978.

That didn't bother me much since Mickey had been around before I was born, but now I've been given a jolt by realizing that another icon from my life is nearing it's 50th anniversary.

The icon I'm referring to is the VISA CARD which I've been using almost since it's beginnings, except that when I was first introduced to it I knew it as CHARGEX.

The event that brought this fact to my realization happened just a few days ago. I had parked on a public street in Pucon, Chile and had to pay for my parking fee when I discovered I had no change and the parking attendant only received CASH.

That I didn't have cash wasn't unusual, for many years I have formed a habit of having little or no cash, using a credit card for virtually all my needs. This habit was developed through acquiring a Visa Card which paid me a percentage of every transaction which I made and the fact that most everything I used to use cash for was available through using a credit card.

Well, that habit has continued even as I wander around in places like Chile where almost everything can be purchased using a credit card, but this one event started me thinking ....

Here I am, using a payment system almost all of my adult life -- nearly 50 years -- and yet today in places like Chile (and I'm sure many other countries) there are adults who have never had a credit card. In fact, I know many people in this country that don't even have a bank account!

What's the point? Simply this: there are many areas of our lives that we take for granted and consider totally normal, but if we were to step back and look around us we might be surprisedd to learn that what is sooooo normal for us, is not necessarily normal for others.

More escapes from reality

2006-02-14T13:20:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

tourism, entertainment, spectator sports, movies, television,

Recently I wrote a blog entry in which I wondered how the world would be affected if the escapist nature of tourism were refocused.

In further thinking about this theme, it is easy to see that the tourist trade isn't the only area where tremendous time, energy, and money is directed toward escaping from a dreary reality.

One might easily say that most entertainment, spectator sports, the movie industry, much of television, radio, the music business, a great deal of magazine, newspaper and book publishing activities are all offering to differing degrees different ways of escaping from a daily routine.

Now I can imagine someone bringing up the old refrain "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," but I think it is a pretty poor justification for not attempting to consider the possibility of trying to turn a substantial portion of our diversions into efforts which will do more than simply distract our attention for a few moments from a reality which we don't find agreeable.

Play, at one time, was used as a way of instructing children (and possibly others) skills and lessons which would serve them in the future. There still are some games around that intend to do this, but I believe that probably the majority of the toys, games and diversions which are sold and used today don't even pretend to begin to consider what, if any, educational value they might be to the user or participant.

Many of the professional, spectator sports that exist today, have their roots in activities that were originally used for training soldiers and keeping them in good condition, but what value does a spectator gain? The answer to this is one of the principal reasons why Gadafhi chose to ban spectator sports in Libya. (I'm not necessarily endorsing all of Gadafhi's ideas, but this is one which might be worth thinking about.)

If we were to examine the history of art, music and literature I'm sure we'd discover that many of the great inspirational classics were created (or at least became classics) because they gave the observer, listener or reader something more than just a brief period in which they might forget about their dreary lives. How much of what is produced and popularized through radio, television, motion pictures, magazines, etc today, have any residual value except for wrapping fish?

When one starts to add up the millions of people who work directly and indirectly in activities which might be considered diversionary, and all the resources which are consumed every second of every day to produce something which has absolutely no lasting value to anyone the numbers would be overwhelming.

As I stated when I was wondering about tourism, I'm not judging anyone who is participating in any aspect of these activities as being bad or even with evil intentions. But when one takes into account how much of the time effort and energy used in the world is directed toward useless ends, it becomes difficult to even begin to imagine how much to world would improve if even a significant fraction were redirected toward ends which would help better everyone.

Here are just a few hastily-thought-of suggestions of how the satus quo might be improved:

Every animated cartoon were created with the idea of educating the audience with something useful
Every songwriter chose to leave his listener with some attitude, information or skill which would help them live a better life.
Every person who attended a sporting event as a spectator were required to participate in some physical activity as part of their entrance fee.
Every paperback novel and magazine article introduced a new term, or useful idea to the reader.

Of course I'm dreaming if I believed that this would become a reality in my lifetime, but, in the meantime by raising these thoughts, perhaps I might encourage a few individuals to look at their own lives and activities and perhaps start asking themselves: "How can I change what I do to either improve myself, or improve things for others?"

The dark side of light

2006-02-13T10:30:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

light bulbs, consumer fraud,

scams, Westinghouse,

Eco Light, Ecolite

If you were to set out the requirements for a perfect scam, I think you'd come up with something like:

Must be easy to find victims -- almost anyone could be one.

The victim would not know they'd been scammed and,

If a scam were suspected, the victim wouldn't come after you.

If these were your requirements, I think I've discovered an ideal candidate for you, except that it's already being run: Long life light bulbs That link, by the way isn't the scam, it's simply to inform you about the product which is being used.

Why is this such a good candidate for a scam?

Almost everyone uses light bulbs.
The cost is relatively low, even though the Long Life Economic Light bulbs cost at least 5 or 6 times a normal light bulb.
The projected life span of 3000 to 6000 hours or more is such a long time span that it is almost unlikely that anyone would track their usage.
If someone did discover that there was a shorfall in the life span, the actual value which might be recovered is so little that for all the time an effort required the victim wouldn't be likely to even attempt to make a claim.

I happened to stumble across this because I recently moved into a new house and installed several of these low cost long life bulbs. Because there was a large surface at the base of the bulb I noted the date of installation.

Two of these bulbs (different economic brands "Eco Light" and "Ecolite" )went into an area which were used a maximum of one hour daily.

The first was rated at 3,000 hours life and by my estimates received no more than 330 hours of use before it needed to be replaced. The second, was rated at 3 years life and need to be replaced after 7 months.

I have another bulb, a Westinghouse bulb, which is rated at 6000 hours life which is still operating, but at 1 hour useage a day, it will be more than 16 years before I know whether or not it has lived up to it's rating. Chances are that even if I live that long, I'm still not going to have the original proof of purchase which may be required in order to request a refund.

Although the first two bulbs obviously didn't live up to their claimed ratings, the one which lasted 330 hours would have only needed to operate a few more than 400 hours for it to work out as being more economical than the standard 60 watt bulb it replaced if you take into account it's higher initial cost together with the 15 watt power consumption it had.

So, perhaps these long life bulbs are still a better value than their counterparts which they replace, but it seems that the low cost, unknown brand varieties are certainly not living up to the claims which they make on their labeling.

Whether the big reputable brands like GE, Philips, and Westinghouse will fare any better is still in doubt to me, and since their initial cost seems to be about 3 or 4 times more than the cheaper versions, it still seems risky to believe that they will result in any substantial savings to the user.

So, if you're going to try these long life low power bulbs, be forewarned that you might not get what you are expecting.

A really dumb promotion

2006-02-04T12:20:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

Marketing, promotion, loyalty rewards, GNC,

I've been involved with marketing and promotional efforts for many years but I've yet to see a stranger, non-sensical kind of promotion than that being used by the vitamin brand of GNC .

There are two types of loyalty programs in broad use, one which rewards loyal and frequent customers with prizes or benefits (like frequent-flyer programs) and the second which aims at increasing a customer's use of a product or service regardless of their prior history.

It's really difficult to understand what GNC is attempting to achieve with their Gold Card program which, in short has the following characteristics:

You must pay $15.00 a year for the card.
It can be used ONLY during certain days of the month.
The US version allows the first 7 days. A Chilean version is more restrictive and convoluted: it permits just the first Monday, Tuesday or Wednesay of each month.
The benefits are subject to change at any time.

While GNC products are generally perceived as being high quality, they are not bargain priced. In fact, they may be among the higher priced in their category. The card offers holder (initially) a 20% discount.

Simple math shows that a person must spend at least $75 to simply break-even BUT what happens if they need a product which GNC sells a day before or after the limited time span which the card provides the discount?

Chances are, that a client, who might have every intention of purchasing their brand, would be annoyed at not being able to get the expected discount unless they were willing to wait till the following month. Would they buy the GNC product anyway, or would they wait til the next month?

My guess is not. I'd expect that a significant number of consumers would be inclined to see if they could find an alternative product at a lower price and might even vow to NEVER use the GNC brand again.

A good incentive program needs to be simple for the customer to use unless there is some kind of exclusive, highly desirable benefit that a client is prepared to suffer some inconvenience to obtain.

GNC's card program seems to fall short and, in my view, runs the danger of actually costing them more in lost sales than they might gain from those who don't mind the limtations imposed by it.

Of course, my perceptions might be wholly off base and I'd be delighted to have someone explain to me the benefits which a program such as this can bring both the customer and the company which uses it.

Will we have any privacy left?

2006-02-03T10:11:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

Privacy, liberty, civil liberty, big brother, government surveillance.

Almost everyday it seems I run across a new report or example of ways in which our personal lives are being laid bare to others.

Perhaps some of these intrusions can be justified, but I've yet to be convinced that the end benefits to the individual outweigh the costs to him.

Usually most of the arguments, on closer examination, reveal that the real benefits go to narrow interest groups or, in some cases, other individuals who wish to control other's lives.

The latest example I've seen is a humorous piece (turn on your sound), showing what might happen when you order a pizza. It's funny, but it also scares me to think that to some extent this may already be happening.

A dream world vs a better reality

2006-01-26T12:09:00.000-03:00

Keywords:
tourism, vacation,

economy, escapism,

self-development, growth

A recent blog posting by Michael Phillips on the value of tourism in a local economy has caused me to remember my thoughts about a certain aspect of the tourist trade which I have found disturbing.

From a certain point of view, it seems to me, that, in essence, almost all tourism, the vacation business, the "get-away-from-it-all" type of concept is nothing more than an illusion.

After all, what is a person left with after their dream vacation? They step into a fantasy world for a few hours, days or weeks in which they pretend to live a life they cannot hope to continue living, and in the end return to a dull, dreary, routine, often in debt to pay for their brief fantasy over the next few months or longer.

Now, I wonder if most people wouldn't be better served, wouldn't have much more rewarding lives, if, instead of trying to escape from their drudgery for a couple of weeks a year, they were to invest the same amount of time, energy and enthusiasm into looking for and developing some purpose and meaning in their lives as a whole.

Phillips blog spoke of the economic value in just one local economy. When I imagine the enormous worldwide economic value of tourism, vacation travel, tourist services, financing costs, and every thing else involved, including the enormous number of people who earn their livelihood working in these fields it makes me wonder how different the world might be if all this were directed to improving the human condition, rather than simply attempting to escape from it, or providing an escape.

On a very simplistic level, there may not be much difference between a person running an opium den and a person who provides some tourist service: they are both catering to a weakness of their client and helping them to avoid reality.

I am not judging the people who own or work in tourist-related activities as being bad, and I'm certainly not passing any moral judgment on anyone or their activities, but I am wondering how the world would be different if there were a shift in focus from escapism to a search for meaning and growth.

What's going to happen in 2006? Predictions

2006-01-21T13:12:00.000-03:00

Keywords:
Predictions, 2006, technology, trends
.

Predicting the future is easy if you don't care about people coming back and telling you where you were wrong. But, if you put any thought into your predictions, based on a careful review and a good understanding of what's happening, it can be useful to look ahead -- even if you're wrong.

I came across a web page which has some ideas that seem to be perceptive and interesting about:

Broadband penetration

Implications of increased broadband

Voice Over IP

VideoVideo over IP

Google

Videocasting

Growth and Scalability

Implications of Growth

Blogging, podcasting, vidcasting

Internet server Crash

Issues about Trust

wikipedia

Take a look at: 2006 Predictions. If you're interested in the developements in the world of technology you'll find this fascinating

This blog is estimated to be worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Free University Education

2006-01-21T12:01:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

Education, university,

distance-learning, MIT,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Did you know that anyone can get a university education free?
MIT has put on line 1,250 courses in the following fields:

Aeronautics and Astronautics
Anthropology
Architecture
Biological Engineering Division
Biology
Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Chemical Engineering
Chemistry
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Comparative Media Studies
Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Economics
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Engineering Systems Division
Foreign Languages and Literatures
Health Sciences and Technology
History
Linguistics and Philosophy
Literature
Materials Science and Engineering
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Media Arts and Sciences
Music and Theater Arts
Nuclear Science and Engineering
Ocean Engineering
Physics
Political Science
Science, Technology, and Society
Sloan School of Management
Special Programs
Urban Studies and Planning
Women's Studies
Writing and Humanistic Studies

They call their offer OpenCourseWare and describe it as a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world.

OCW is a publication of MIT course materials, it does not require any registration, is not a degree-granting or certificate-granting activity nor does it provide access to MIT faculty. It does, however, give anyone the opportunity to audit any of the courses offered and be guided, the same as a registered enrolled student in those courses.

Use this link to learn more about MIT OpenCourse Ware ...

Complaining Effectively

2006-01-19T12:54:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

customer service, complaints, personal relations

Recently I've been spending a lot of time talking about poor customer service and expressing the idea that it is important to complain when things are not as good as you'd like them to be.

Often we don't like to complain because it makes us look bad, or cranky, or it may produce an unpleasant situation that we'd rather avoid.

In business practice, it is often experienced that unsatisfied customers frequently don't complain, they simply stop doing business with the firm that gave them cause to complain. This creates quite a challenge for those businesses which sincerely want to improve, not only to redress the wrongs that they may have committed that have lost them customers, but also in winning new customers.

So, if you think your complaint, if it is something which a business can control, is not appreciated, think again. If you bring to the attention of the owners or management a fault which is costing them business, they may actually be delighted to receive your complaint.

HOW to Complain

Often, when you have a complaint, it is a situation which you find disturbing and you might actually be angry over something you've experienced. You want to strike out and hit someone. Of course, complaining under these conditions is likely to be unpleasant, but it doesn't need to be.

Try to cool yourself down before making a complaint and see if you can approach the situation in an objective frame of mind. Attempt to separate yourself from the situation so that you see what happened wasn't a deliberate personal attack against you, but rather an unfortunate event which you think the business will be happy to rectify, if you give them a chance.

Put yourself into the shoes of the person you a going to confront and see which approach would make you feel more cooperative:

"You guys are always trying to rip-off your customers with your shoddy service and inferior products. I'm not going to let you get away with this, I demand that you fix this NOW or I'm going to see that you suffer ..."

or
"I know that you probably didn't intend for this to happen, you seemed to me to be such a helpful and sincere person, but I've ended up with a problem that has left me unhappy with what I bought here yesterday and I'd really appreciate it if you would help me see how we can resolve the situation".

This, of course, is just an example, but the important point is the attitude which you display when you make your complaint known.

I know that I have often spoken or acted in ways which alienate others, so I don't consider myself a saint in this regard, but I do believe that even in some of the most horrible situations I've faced, there might have been better ways of doing them.

In this light, I would like to let you know about a newsletter I've been reading for quite awhile that has always provided me with helpful tips in dealing with people under difficult circumstances. It's called Winning Without Intimidation and it's available without any cost. If you check out the web site I think you will agree with me.

An unusual Credit Card Error

2006-01-18T12:53:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

Banks, VISA, credit cards, customer service

Today I had a most unusual experience, and in recounting it I want to give a public commendation to the customer service representative from TD VISA, named Abby.

I'm usually quite meticulous in reviewing my charges on my credit cards, and have, infrequently, found incorrect charges which, to their credit, TD VISA has always been exemplary in dealing with. I have only the highest complements for the service I've received from TD VISA in all the years I've been a customer.

Today I did something I never did before: I totaled up the charges for the month and compared my total with the total purchases on the statement.

I found a difference of $2.00

At first I couldn't believe it. I checked my addition several times and then called customer service and spoke with Abby. She ran her own total and agreed that there was a difference of two dollars and immediately told me that she'd issue a credit for the difference AND bring this to the attention of her supervisor. She also agreed to review all the statements I've received in the prior year.

I don't know if the root of this was some kind of internal theft, an error, or what, but my point in posting this is to suggest that it might be worthwhile, at least occasionally to thoroughly review your statements and ask for a clarification if there is anything you don't like or even anything you don't completely understand.

You may discover that everything is all right, but there's also a chance you might find something unusual, just as I did.

I believe that much fraud and identity theft which is so common these days would be nipped in the bud if more people would exercise greater vigilance in their accounts.

If you find any unusual things, or have had special experiences with customer service people in these fields, please comment: I'd be pleased to hear from you.

The abuse of statistics

2006-01-16T10:31:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

Statistics, politics,

democracy, elections,

Chile

If you were invited to a party and were told that nearly half of the people there didn't like you, would you have some reservations about attending?

What if you were asked to lead a group in which you knew, even before you started that 5 out of 10 of the members were against you. Would you think twice about taking on such a job?

While I'm not about to discuss, Chilean politics, per se, I want to note that yesterday, Chile elected a new president, Michelle Bachelete, their first female president, with about 53% of the votes, her oponent, Sebastian Piñera, getting 47%.

It's clear that Bachelete gained a majority of the votes, but what is equally obvious, if you look at the figures is that nearly half of the votes were against her.

If you add to this, the fact that there were approximately 3% of the votes submitted in blank or spoiled, and consider that these abnormal votes could have been made in protest, then she received only a very slim majority ... somewhere around 51% of all the votes cast.

Jorge Luis Borges once defined democracy as an abuse of statistics. I tend to agree, especially when most people today live with the illusion that their participation in an election has a vital role in their future or the future of the world.

One of the major failings of the present democratic system in my eyes is that fact that people are forced to choose from a pre-determined list of choices. What if they don't like any of those choices? They are then required to select the lesser of the evils.

Use the just completed Chilean presidental election as an example. This was the second round, and there were just two candidates: the two who had received the highest number of votes in the first round, about a month ago. Regardless of what happened, one of these two candidates would be elected president.

What would have happened if there were a third choice on the ballot which offered people the chance to vote for

NONE OF THE ABOVE

Would the 3% of blank ballots have been cast for this option?

More importantly, there were possibly another 30% of votes which were supposedly transferred from the candidates who were eliminated from the first round. Conceivably, in this election, the majority of the votes, might have been cast for the option of "None of the Above"

If this were the result, obviously the voters would be telling the politicians in the country that they didn't like any of the choices they had been presented with and they had better come up with a new list.

I realize that even this option, if it were available, would not be a complete solution to all the weaknesses and imperfections which democracy currently has, but the fact that it has never been made available in any election that I've heard of, is one of the reasons why I consider the popular notion about democracy to be an illusion and think that Borges may have been right on the mark.

The only reason to exist

2006-01-14T11:01:00.000-03:00

Keywords:

Customer Service, banks, public utilities,

government agencies, monopolies

The discussion which followed the last blog I posted has led me to reflect more about the lack of good customer service which seems to exist in many parts of the world especially in banks, public utilities, and government regulatory agencies.

Why do these entities have such poor service and relations with their clients?

Mostly, I think, it is because the people who work in them, have never, themselves, experienced any better treatment that they dish out and, as such, perhaps don't even know that something better exists.

What I'm saying is that I don't believe that these people are inherently rotten and thus deliver bad service, but that they simply don't know any better.

It's very difficult for a bureaucrat in a government office to realize that the ONLY reason his job exists is that person who is standing in front of him after waiting possibly hours in a line, to have a problem solved. After all, that person HAS TO come to him to get his problem solved, there is no other way to have that problem dealt with, hence he (the bureaucrat) is actually doing this person a favor by having the patience to even listen to their concerns.

Furthermore, he's been doing this all his life and so why should he be worried about that customer being unhappy, no one is going to take his job away for that.

What this bureaucrat does not think about is the possibility that one day his service might become a private company and open to competition, and that his very existance as an employee will depend on whether or not there are enough customers for him to serve. This is what happens in a mature market-driven economy.

It is what is happening now in many countries and industries which are becoming more and more global and where even a local merchant is subject to competition from a competitor who is not only some distance away, but might even be in another country.

The internet, movies and sindicated television programs which are translated and spread around the world give people (read customers) more and more ideas about what good service can be. As more and more people become aware of what they're missing, more and more of these people are going to begin insisting on this in their own lives as customers AND if they work in job where they attend customers, they will have a new modle to follow in their conduct with the clients they attend.

These changes may take a long time to be put into place and become wide spread, but they are happening. I've seen this in Chile where I have been involved with a retail tire sales operation from it's inception a few years ago. Because I came with a different concept of customer service than was common, most of what I instituted was new and it was difficult to train employees to look at their customers as the only reason they had a job.

Now, after several years, it is gratifying to notice that we have set a new standard for service in the area where we operate, but many of the things which we pioneered are now becomming commonly accepted and practiced.

Still, the big institutions seem to be behind in these changes, even though some of them seem to be the leaders in this area. In fact, small businesses can change most rapidly but they tend to follow the lead of the big boys. The big companies have long established traditions and employees with many years of bad habits ingrained which makes them lag in implementing their reforms even though the management may be aware of the need for them.

So, if you work in, run, or own any activity where you must deal with customers (or clients, or "the public") you need to keep in mind one fundamental thought each time you deal with one:

The only reason you exist (as a business, or in a job) is to meet the needs of that client who is facing you in the best way you can.

If you succeed in making that thought a fundamental basis of everything you do, your success in your field will be assured for a long time to come.

Telefónica Móviles: One of the World's Most User UnFriendly Companies

2006-01-09T12:22:00.000-03:00

I spend a lot of time in Chile and have had the misfortune of having to deal with celular phone companies in that country.

One of the worst I've ever dealt with is now called Movistar owned by Telefónica Móviles. This company hugh -- it claims to be one of the biggest 5 in the world and operates in most of Latin America and many countries in Europe. (If anyone has any experiences --good or bad-- with other celphone companies I'd welcome a comment with details)

Their corporate literature contains the most blatant lies that I have ever seen:

From their web site on Corporate Responsibility they state:

Telefónica Móviles wonts to be a trusted company, not only due to its size and experience, but also due to its nearness to people, showing it has a definite vocation to understand and comprehend their needs, and above all, to be a company able to make commitments and to fulfil them. (Copied directly from web site complete with spelling errors-jf)

Why do I call this company a blatant liar?

When I contracted their services, they were the most friendly and accomodating company that you could imagine (and this would be completely in accordance with the corporate values stated above) , however, when I had occasion to cancel a service which I had contracted with them, the red tape and obstacles which were placed in my way made me feel that in signing a contract with them I had sold myself into perpetual slavery.

When signing up for a service, a sales rep came to my office, prepared all the forms which were needed to be signed, made photocopies on their time and at their expense, delivered equipment ... it short made it almost effortless to become a client.

The service I contracted was for several employees of a firm I administrate and when one person left our employ there was no further reason for our firm to have their service.

In order to stop that service I was required to visit a company office where I had to take a number and wait nearly an hour to be served. Then the customer service rep. took another 20 minutes to get the necessary records so that she could then inform me that I had to write a letter renouncing the service and then wait until the end of the billing cycle until the service was effectively stopped. It wasn't enought that I was physically present in their office with the equipment in my hand ready to return it. The service would not be terminated until I provided a written request.

This was not all, however. Afterwards, I received no less than 3 additional calles from different representatives, attempting to convince me to continue with the service.

Somewhat later in the year the remaining employees decided that they wished to change the equipment they were using and made the necessary arrangements on their own without any knowledge or participation on my part.

Now, when we were faced with the need to separate this service from our firm, Movistar, informs me that the change in equipment, which was made without my knowledge or consent, obligated the firm to a minimum of 18 months additional service and now, if we wish to terminate the service, they will charge us rental for each of the incompleted months.

In short, in order to terminate any service, they require a written request from me, however, they do not require any written authorization to put into effect something that will increase our obligation to them.

I have the understanding that Movistar is not the only cellular phone company in Chile which is user "unfriendly", but it is the only one which I can cite from specific experience. From what I see, all companies spend enormous amounts on advertising promoting new and varied ways for you to spend your money, and they make it extremely easy to make these expenditures, but if you ever have a problem, or make a mistake, heaven help you.

Chile is reputed, among other LatinAmerican countries, as being one of the easiest and least bureaucratic countries to do business in, so I can only shudder to think about what kind of conditions consumers in other countries might face.

My point in writing this is to encourage readers, especially in Latin America, to read the fine print and ask a lot of "what if" questions when signing up for any kind of on going service. In North America, many services are regulated and controled by laws which tend to be friendly to consumers, but most of these laws have come into being because of abuses to which consumers were subjected.

So beware ... the next contract you sign may not have all the protection you might expect.

Are you willing to stand up and be counted?

2006-01-07T11:12:00.000-03:00

I've recently decided to come out in the open and declare publically how I view the world.

Not that I've been particularly mute on the topic, but I've never made a declaration for all to see, as I have now.

I've decided to make it know to all who care about it, that I consider myself to be a World Citizen and, surprizingly to me, I agree with most of the principles which are described in the article: World citizen in Wikipedia.

Since the purpose of this blog is to publish thoughts to stimulate thinking, I'd encourage everyone who reads this to click on the Wikipedia link and explore the idea more.

I know that there are many people who don't, or won't, agree with me, but my objective is not to seek agreement, but rather to encouage you to think about these topics and to come to your own conclusions based on what you've discovered through your own experience and analysis, instead of just parroting ideas (such as patriotism, loyalty, nationalism, citizenship, etc.) which have been hammered into your consciousness ever since you were born.

After careful examination and thought you may decide to continue to believe in some of the things which you have been taught. If this is because you have examined the issues carefully I'd encourage you to keep those beliefs, but if you've never examined them, how do you know that they're right for you?

Am I being taken for a ride?

2006-01-06T13:59:00.000-03:00

Some people might skoff and say I'm be played as a fool. I know that what I'm trying is unconventional, and I have my own doubts, but when you've been subjected to over 4 years of chronic suffering, sometimes you are prepared to try ANYTHING to eçsee if you can find relief.

Traditional medicine doesn't offer me any hope. Specialists tell me that I have a degenerated spine and that all I can do is accept the fact, take pain killers to control my discomfort and learn to live with the condition. Maybe there are some people who would accept this diagnosis and not try anything else, but to me that is about the same as rolling over and waiting for the grim reaper to make his appearance.

So, I've been receiving osteopathic treatments, bee stings, acupuncture and other non traditional procedures which seem to have aided. Now, I've been subjected to a new therapy in the quest to deal with my chronic back pain.

In simple terms, I was given a foot bath in a saline solution which had a low voltage electrical current running through it.

In 1/2 hour the color of the water changed from crystal clear to the color of dark apple juice, or strong urine.

Apparently this treatment is supposed to remove toxins from one's body through a dialysis process via the feet.

So far I can't claim any great benefits or noticable changes in my body, or health. All I did notice, and it was impressive was the change in color of the water.

Some people have reported considerable benefit from this. I am still somewhat skeptical, but if you're curious to learn more about the process you can find it described on the following web page:

Detox Online - How it Works - The Truth:.

How is this supposed to help my back. The theory is this:
My back is a reflection of problems in other part of my body because of the nerve endings in my spine. Pain there is a symptom of other problems.

The detoxification through my feet is supposed to help remove toxic waste which had accumulated in my body, including a quantity of heavy metals. As these toxins are removed other organs will recover and the pain which is being transmitted to my back will diminish and eventually disappear.

Why would I believe this? Well so far, other things, recommened by my Naturopath, such as bee-stings have helped, so I'm inclined to give this a try because he recommends it. Will it work? Only time and experience will tell but I'd rather try this instead of pumping my body full of drugs some of which may have disasterous side affects in spite of their having been "approved" by the FDA or other regulatory agencies which are supposed to look out for our well being but which seem to only help big pharmaceutical firms line their pockets.

Punning in Spanish

2006-01-05T10:11:00.000-03:00

As far as I know puns are not as common in Spanish as they are in English. If anyone can provide evidence that I'm mistaken, I'd like to be corrected.

The first Spanish pun I can recall is the answer to "How many stars are in the sky?" Answer: "Sin cuenta", which sounds the same as "cinquenta". The first means, literally, "without count", while the latter is "50".

Since I am an inveterate punster I frequently find myself playing with Spanish words in a way that few hispanics seem to appreciate. Recently we had a scam in the area where people were sucked into purchasing tins of Nescafe which when the buyers opened them, they discovered they were filled with sawdust, which is not coffee, or in Spanish "No es cafe". This led me to invent the following lable which could have turned the scam product into something legitimate.

Parody of Nescafe

This is my creation, I grant anyone the right to reproduce this on the internet as long as there is a link back to this blog.

Comments on Beating Cancer

2005-10-06T10:19:00.000-04:00

I'm beginning to think that I've become a Cancer Beater.

I realize that I could simply be fooling myself and looking for ways to justify what others might call a foolish decision to reject the traditional medical doctors' approach to treating the diagnosis which I was handed last July, but a recent article by Michael Masterson (Beating Cancer: Does Early Detection Help?) adds to my aresenal of arguments that I made the right choice.

In summary, his article argues that much of the current belief that modern medicine has been making great improvements in the treatment of cancer through early dection is absolutely false.

He presents stong arguments for the following conclusions:

First, we have to recognize that much of what we take for granted in modern medicine is simply false.
Second, we have to recognize that a number of widely practiced medical treatments have no medical basis and may not have any beneficial effect ... except to fatten doctors' wallets.
Third, we must accept responsibility for our own health. And that means not relying on what we are told just because the government, the AMA, or some other "trustworthy" institution says it's so.

If you have any concerns about cancer as it affects you or anyone close to you I'd highly suggest you read this article.

Beating Cancer: Does Early Detection Help?

Three little words

2005-08-06T10:35:00.000-04:00

It's amazing how just three little words can change your entire life in an instant!

For me those three words were "You have cancer . . .."

Although I had never denied the possibility that I would be faced with this diagnosis, I just never gave it a great deal of importance in my life. Then, one day, in trying to determine why I was experiencing a drop in my energy, the doctors I was consulting came out with that diagnosis.

It was a tremendous shock!

My world was turned upside down.

I didn't know what to do, even though I had thought about the possibility after my father passed away from cancer of the colon and decided that if I were ever given the same diagnosis as he had I would never submit to an operation and subsequent therapy; I would accept my fate and seek to live out the rest of my life as painlessly as possible.

You see, my father never really recovered from the initial operation. It was a downhill road for about 2 years from the moment he submitted to surgery. So much so that I became convinced that he would have lived just as long and possibly even longer had he not had the surgery.

But what to do now that I actually faced this in my life?

Well I consulted with the doctors. The surgeon my internist recommended told me that IF a person were to submit to the operation only 3 in 10 would be alive in five years. (I had asked what would be the probability of living 10 years, if I started on the treatment path). So, not only could he not answer my question, but the answer he gave me was not very encouraging. After all, in that five year period a substantial part would be convalesing from a major surgery quite probably followed by a long, painful and costly period of radiation or chemotherapy and then still only have a 30 percent chance of being alive.

So I made my determination. I will NOT submit to the knife. I have sought -- and am now undergoing a wholistic alternative treatment plan which is similiar to what can be found at www.cancertutor.com.

The point of this blog is not to convince others to take the route I have, but to comment on the profound effect that this development in my life has had on my daily activities.

Almost everything has taken a back-seat to my efforts to seek a solution to my dilema. That's not to say I have left the rest of my life to complete chance, but I can say that things that I might have given a high priority to completing, such as last year's tax return, have now fallen into the category where I'll get to it "sometime".

I was actively developing two web sites: http://www.affiliate-master.com and http://www.tire-information-world.com and both of these have become virtually stagnant over the past few weeks as I have devoted practically all my time and energy to 1) learning about the alternative treatments which might allow me to resolve my problem and 2) detaching myself completely from my normal routine to allow both my mind and body to rest and recuperate.

Other major projects which I had contemplated undertaking, such as a complete (and needed) update of the website for the retail business which I oversee (http://www.neumaticocentro.cl) and other plans which we have been developing for expanding this enterprize, have been put on the shelf and the business itself is nearly running on autopilot.

I haven't abandoned any of these, but these simply have not got the importance which I gave them a few weeks ago, and at this moment I don't feel the least bit guilty if any of these suffer or backslide because of my lack of dedication to them.

That's not to say that I will deny responsibility for the consequences, it's just that I feel comfortable in letting them go for awhile, and if necessary I will deal with them later -- when I am able.

Thoughts To Provoke Your Thoughts: Intelligent Discussion

2004-06-11T19:25:00.000-04:00

Thoughts To Provoke Your Thoughts: Intelligent Discussion

If there are a few more nuggets like this to be found in the blogging world, it may not be such a bad world of which to become a part.

The enigma of the blog

2004-06-11T12:38:00.000-04:00

I'm still struggling with the question of whether or not blogging is going to become a continuing experience in my life. Somehow, it seems appropriate to be dealing with this in a blog.

The core question is "Does anyone bother to read blogs?", or in the case of this specific blog, "Will anyone ever see this?" [My initial expectation is that no one will see this for considerable time, if at all]

Yesterday I ran across a blog called "My Private Thoughts" which I cannot locate again. I've tried looking in my History of web pages, and it doesn't appear anywhere, and of course it's not in the "more..." link of the recently updated blogs which are listed in my Blogger's Dashboard.

The fact that I can't find it again, raises another question: How does one find a blog that one might be interested in? I've tried doing a Google Search on "My Private Thoughts" and while there's a lot there, the particular blog I saw doesn't seem evident.

The reason for mentioning this particular blog is that it creates another question for me: Why would anyone want to put their private thoughts in a place where they could possibly be discovered unless they want (or secretly hope) that these thoughts will become known to somebody?

There is a considerable difference between writing down your thoughts in a journal or notebook which you keep locked up in a private place, and leaving that journal on your front doorstep.

There's a matter of ethics in this too. If I discover someone's "Private Thoughts", my code of ethics tells me that I should leave them untouched, or if I happen to see them to at least keep them to myself. I can't imagine many people admitting that they had been reading another's private journal unless they had been invited to do so.

So, if I publish my own private thoughts in a blog, can anything I put there be considered libelous? Are my private thoughts private or aren't they? On the other side of the coin, if I deliberately put my private thoughts in a place where they could be seen by another person (the public) do they then become "public" even though I continue to call them private? I would incline to say they are no longer private, no matter what I choose to call them.

Now, what is the purpose or value in blogging? I've seen quite a number of blogs which are referred to as "rants" (defined) and I suppose that there are people who will maintain that ranting in a blog is a good way to vent one's anger and frustration, as opposed to taking some kind of destructive behavior.

I wonder about that. Not that I'm advocating violent, destructive action. But, I think that when one is angry, that anger might be more productively channeled into seeking a positive solution for the cause of the anger, rather than just blowing off steam in a manner which does no harm to anyone. Venting one's anger could be looked at as a coward's way out, or at least a lazy way out. So you rant in a blog, let out the pressure, but everything stays the same. Tomorrow, next week or next year the conditions that gave rise to the rage are still there and you, yourself, are subject to a repetition of the same which might be even worse because your anger is compounded by the repetition.

I'm considering using bloging as a way of sorting out my own thoughts on subjects that I may not have thoroughly thought through. Somehow, the idea that someone may be watching may cause me to be a bit more careful and precise in putting together my thoughts than I would be otherwise.

It reminds me of noticing (in the past) that whenever I was really trying to be complete in my deliberations about something that I found myself thinking in Spanish.

I should explain that my native tongue is English and I only learned Spanish as an adult. For some unknown reason, my subconscious seemed to equate careful thinking with the extra effort that it takes me to express myself in the new language. I don't know whether or not it produced any better thinking in terms of the end results. But I do know that Spanish speaking people have a view of the world different from Anglophones. Maybe that was the point ... using another viewpoint might help ensure that I covered all bases on a topic.

Well that's enough of this thinking for today.

I also started in a Tai Chi class today, something which I've been wanting to do for several years but couldn't find an instructor. This one seems to have a considerably different approach to the subject than the one I had in '96. Who's to say whether he's right or wrong, or simply different? Certainly not I, as a novice. It's the results that will tell so I intend to follow his instruction until I start to see something happening.

2-bit philosopher

2004-06-10T12:44:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking about changing the name of this blog to 2bitPhil, or something similar, because I think I'm sort of a 2-bit philosopher.

First I want to make sure of what 2-bit means. Dictionary.com has two meanings for the term two-bit, of which I had the first in mind, which is:

Informal. Costing or worth 25 cents: a two-bit cigar.

My reason for thinking of this title is the fact that it doesn't require much to get me to to be philosophical about anything. I will often take and examine in depth and from many different sides, any subject that happens to fall within my view.

Sometimes my conclusions are surprising, other times it turns out that I have simply passed a lot of time and effort (in thought) for nothing. Whether this sets me apart from others or not, I don't really know, but I'm sure that it is this charasteristic that has led me to have some ideas and attitudes which set me apart from the main stream of thinking of people around me. (It also makes me thing that a lot of people hardly ever think at all.)

However, I don't like the second meaning:

Slang. Worth very little; petty or insignificant: a two-bit thief.

I'm sure that a lot of people would be quick to apply the second to anything I might say, but that's their opinion and they're entitled to it, regardless of whether or not they're right.

What I am starting to form is the inclination to use blogging as a means of expressing many of my thoughts which I otherwise simply have allowed to pass through my mind and then evaporate into the air without ever having expressed them or acted upon them.

This, of course, could get me into a lot of trouble because I'm sure many of the thoughts I have had are libelous or at least offensive to others. As I noted in my first blog entry, I often have put my foot in my mouth. So the jury is still out on this, I'm going to have to think about this whole blog idea a bit more ....

First posting

2004-06-08T18:07:00.000-04:00

My very first blog. I'm so excited I can hardly sit still. Now I have a chance to stick my foot in my mouth with even greater frequency and in front of a greater audience than I've ever had before (that is, of course, if anyone cares to notice).

Could be a great time waster, and heaven knows I already waste enough time on the internet and in computer related activities.

Well, we'll see where this goes.