7 million miles of toothpaste wasted!

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

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

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

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 .

1. Provide some limited service to somebody in the community.


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


3. Sells products which involves considerable extra expense to receive.


4. Operates in activity in which there is no regulation.


5. Police have no jurisdiction.


6. Legal action involves high costs.


7. 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:

• http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/381/RipOff0381909.htm and
• http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=44703

Seizure of Arms stashes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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%

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!

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

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:

1. Every animated cartoon were created with the idea of educating the audience with something useful
2. Every songwriter chose to leave his listener with some attitude, information or skill which would help them live a better life.
3. Every person who attended a sporting event as a spectator were required to participate in some physical activity as part of their entrance fee.
4. 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

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:

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


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


3. 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?

1. Almost everyone uses light bulbs.
2. The cost is relatively low, even though the Long Life Economic Light bulbs cost at least 5 or 6 times a normal light bulb.
3. 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.
4. 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

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:

1. You must pay $15.00 a year for the card.
2. 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.
3. 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?

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

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

Keywords:
Predictions, 2006, technology, trends
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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

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