Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles.
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The scam was uncovered when Japanese moviestar Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food.
She was crestfallen when told it was a sheep.
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One couple said they became suspicious when they took their “dog” to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves.
LOL, in Japan of all places. I thought they were smart, logical people, no? REALLY.. if they don’t know the difference between a sheep and a poodle, they are not qualified to own any pets, including sheep.
Here’s an interesting perspective on the bottled water backlash. I never thought about it this way. Bof! (as Nico would say :-) Most superficial fads trickle down from the “elites” of the society anyway. At least, in this case, it’s for the good of the environment.
Chez Panisse’s decision to swap Perrier for public water highlights how quickly the culture surrounding food, drink, and the environment has shifted. Not long ago, bottled water represented the height of urban sophistication. Today, bottled water is just another cog in the carbon-spewing, globe-warming industrial machine. There is a growing conflict between those who want to drink clean, pure water and those who want to breathe clean, pure air.
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Bottled water’s swift transformation from glass-encased luxury good to déclassé, plastic-wrapped menace was entirely predictable. Over the past century, we’ve seen numerous examples of products that, so long as they were available only to a select few, were viewed by those elites as brilliant, life-improving developments: the automobile, coal-generated electricity, air conditioning. But once companies figured out how to make them available to the masses, the elites suddenly condemned them as dangerous and socially destructive.
So long as only a few people were drinking Evian, Perrier, and San Pellegrino, bottled water wasn’t perceived as a societal ill. Now that everybody is toting bottles of Poland Spring, Aquafina, and Dasani, it’s a big problem.
In the spirit of freakonomics, he argues that in grander scale of things, practicing monogamy or abstinence can be more deadly than being promiscuous.
consider Joan, who attended a party where she ought to have met the charming and healthy Martin. Unfortunately Fate, through its agents at the Centers for Disease Control, intervened. The morning of the party, Martin ran across one of those CDC-sponsored subway ads touting the virtues of abstinence. Chastened, he decided to stay home. In Martin’s absence, Joan hooked up with the equally charming but considerably less prudent Maxwell–and Joan got AIDS. Abstinence can be even deadlier than monogamy.
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The question is: How do we subsidize Martin’s sexual awakening without simultaneously subsidizing Maxwell’s ongoing predations? Just paying people to have sex won’t work–not with Maxwell around to reap the bulk of the rewards. The key is to subsidize something that is used in conjunction with sex and that Martin values more than Maxwell.
Of course the practicality of this is highly questionable in real-life, and human lives are not just statistics, but it’s an interesting theory nevertheless.
Have you noticed these days, more and more companies are creating luxury product lines? In some cases, on top of already luxury brands (call it luxury++). Here are some examples (in the order of increasing “luxuriness”):
Old Navy < Gap < Banana Republic < BR Heritage
Volkswagen < Audi < Audi S < Audi RS
Godiva < Godiva G
Budweiser (already “The King of Beer” no?) < Budweiser Select
… and so on. I’m sure there are countless number of examples I can’t think of now.
It’s an interesting trend. It’s much easier and cost effective to create new product lines than a new brand. But you can also look at it as lack of planning in product directions and/or lazy and unimaginative marketing. Think of it as the “easy” button for brand culture.
This video has been mentioned on various bookmarking sites recently. It starts out pretty bad, and a passing big rigs seems to trigger or break something and all hell breaks loose. Awesome! Thunder and lightning add to the affect. Hope no one was hurt tho… Where the heck is this?
Two good articles about how new organizations are covering VT tragedy. The second story addresses the intricate balance of being sensitive to the situation while covering the story in level of detail that is acceptable by majority of the audience.
The excruciatingly close-up and continuous coverage of the massacre helps explain why viewers are increasingly turning to Charles Gibson of ABC. When it comes to an anchor’s presence at a major breaking story, less can be more.
And particularly in the middle of so wrenching a tragedy, tone matters as much as content. Hurricane Katrina, even more than 9/11, emboldened television newscasters to fold themselves and their feelings into the story, and that has led to the Anderson Cooperization of the evening news.
Both networks extend their sympathies to everyone at Virginia Tech affected by the killing, but add, hey, if you knew Cho Seung-Hui, “we have anchors and producers on campus that would love to meet with you” (ABC), and “We have producers and camera crews nearby ready to talk to anyone who can supply information about him and his movements leading up to the tragedy” (NBC).
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As reporters intrude into the lives of the grieving to mine the story, they should be guided more by a sense of etiquette than ethics. If they don’t risk going too far, they’ll never go far enough.
Stephen Colbert sponsored “Stephanie Colburtle” is still leading the “race” last I checked. Good to see Yahoo! is still involved in organizing fun events like this :-)
This PBS show kept me awake until 1:30AM last night. It’s a gripping documentary about Jonestown and Peoples Temple, painfully recounted by handful survivors, who themselves have lost their wives, children, and close relatives.
It’s a sad, sad story. It’s unbelievable that it happened less than 30 years ago, and the church was based in San Mateo county, California (of all places!) But things like this are still happening today. Just a few years ago, someone I know personally has been brainwashed then scammed and robbed of all her life savings to a fellow church member claiming to be the reincarnation of Jesus. You would think that something like that would never happen to you, and that this jedi mind-trick only works on mind-weaklings. But then, no one will suspect themselves of being susceptible to brainwashing…
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