To all you folks doing your little snow dances so we’ll have a white Christmas – it’s okay, you can stop now. We have enough snow.
No seriously, stop, please.
Here’s the view from my balcony, during the fall
and during the storm.
So please stop all dancing motions. Anymore snow and you’ll be hearing from my lawyer!
Fans of the British mag Hello will appreciate this one. I think I’ll have the Gingerbread Man as one of the covers soon. He’s heading into a downward spiral and its kind of fun to watch him take the path of evil. He’s so cute! I’m getting a bit concerned, I am starting to see Fairy Tale Tabloid headlines all the time now. Came up with this one while I was setting up someone’s letterhead. There is a connection there somewhere, but I can’t quite see it.
I was on a roll yesterday and did up another tabloid – this time for my British readers. I have more tabloids on the back burner. They will give me something to play with during the holidays. Of course you knew Puss in Boots had to land on the cover – he’s my favourite Fairy Tale character.
Click on the image to get the page full size. No cat should have this much fun before coffee, enjoy.
Facebook has a big plate of eggs on its face after it came to light about their Beacon information collection. It has highlighted the current information gathering frenzy going on in the Internet.
It seems to be the vogue to collect streams of data and then claim it is part of a “technical checking process” as Facebook spokesman Matt Hicks claimed or that the information was not stored, used or sold. If this is the case, then why go to the bother of collecting all the data in the first place. Isn’t there a more efficient way of providing a “technical check” – that phrase is nothing more than marketing blather.
In this case the info gathering went far beyond gathering benign data – it was used to track purchases online. The data was then shared with other users and advertisers without consent. This flies in the face of Facebook’s claim the data was not used in any way. Sounds to me like what we used to call a bold faced lie. How Facebook can stand up and make their claims of innocence is beyond me.
If, what Facebook was up to is not entirely clear to you, then let me quote from The Nation’s article on the subject:
Facebook had launched Beacon, which was using “social advertising” technology to broadcast information about online purchases without many users’ consent. The idea was to convert private commerce into public endorsements: “Ben Bloom ate at the restaurant Junnoon,” read one ad, with a prominent head shot of Ben displayed next to the company logo. But what if Ben didn’t want his lunch date to be an ad? Beacon enrolled people automatically, offering users a choice to “opt out” of each ad on an individual basis.
The sharing and using of information is implicit in this program. To claim the information collected was not used or shared is false. How can this program work without the use of the data. I don’t hear any explanation of this ethical two-step anywhere. Just a resounding silence.
Sit back for a minute and ponder the implications of such unauthorized intrusions into your social life. Lets say you scooted on over to your favourite bookstore’s website to purchase a Christmas certificate for a friend. Next thing you know, your face is all over the internet advertising the fact you love the place so much you’ve done your Christmas shopping there – and what do you get for the use of your face and lose of privacy? Not a damned thing, except perhaps your friend now knows what their present is. Merry Christmas!
This isn’t “social advertising”. Its just plain old advertising done in a dishonest manner. No matter how you dress it up, this was not ethical. Sounds a lot like the Emperor’s New Clothing – oh and yes the Emperor is indeed naked. I can just imagine the corporate folks who thought up this gem sitting around the big table justifying Beacon software – Oh what money we’ll make, and how little we’ll have to pay. We can do an end run around the advertising firms – no costs! We can get our customers to do all our work for us! Wheeee…. what a scam.
I tend to be very wary of signing my name to anything on the Internet. Everyone wants my address, name, phone number, hat size… some companies want this information before I use their self-serve support to figure out issues with THEIR equipment. I now have a stock set of answers for their questions. My name is Piss Off – and yup I actually get unsolicited email, from companies that swore they would not use the information, to Dear Piss Off. My email is noneoff_your@damnedbusiness.com. My phone number 555-555-5555. My address is whatever large company ticks me off at the moment. This works everytime. You are welcome to use my technique in avoiding the useless info grabbing, its fun and cathartic at the same time. You might have to vary the email a bit, many of my customers use it and you may find it’s already used. I get downright rude in some of my answers because this is a waste of my time and an unwarranted intrusion upon my privacy.
I’m waiting to see which corporation gets it in the neck next month for this type of egregious behaviour. I just know it will happen again.
I’ve been scooting through Canada Post and United States Postal Service web sites, looking at what cannot be mailed to various countries. I’ve come to a rather sad conclusion – I must lead a very sheltered life. While many of the items that are prohibited are downright comical, some give me pause. Examples:
“Photographic films, including plates and paper intended for photography.” Cameras cause a problem in all sorts of countries. Can’t have the public making a visual record of the government’s jackboot behaviour.
Vietnam goes one better – “Invisible ink, codes, cyphers, symbols or other types of secret correspondence, and shorthand notes.” Can’t eavesdrop on the Prols if you can’t understand what they are saying, now can you. I just love the invisible ink part. It pops up in a few cases, but it is so James Bond, or primary school. I remember the fun we had making our own invisible ink way back in grade 4.
Phones, recorders and the usual assortment of items we take for granted here in the west are found on a large number of no-mail lists. Anything that might disseminate information of any sort is highly suspect to many governments. Kind of like the big bad wolf “better to see/hear/control you” if you don’t have access to these things.
There are an alarming number of countries that found it necessary to specify you cannot send human remains through the mail. Just how many vacationers tried to mail home their deceased companion – parcel post?
Australia has one of the strangest prohibitions – “Registered philatelic articles with fictitious addresses”. I just can’t wrap my little furry brain around this one. Does this mean I can send via regular mail such articles to fictitious addresses? And why would I want to send anything to a fictitious address? What purpose does this serve? We aren’t talking about hard core drug smuggling here with a fake drop off address, we are talking about stamps. Could someone explain to me the dangers of registered philatelic articles. Those of you not in the know, philatelic articles mean articles related to collecting stamps as a hobby. This could be books, magazines or stamps.
While I’m on the subject of Australia, did you know you can’t send goods bearing the name “Anzac” through the mail? How odd. Can anyone offer an explanation to this?
Azerbaijan actually bans the sending of “knuckledusters, stiletto blades, balls of paralyzing fluid”. Who uses the term knuckleduster? No one talks like that! Does this come from the folks down at the US post office or is this something the Azerbaijan government has specified. This sounds like something from a bad 1930′s gangster film. A wide number of countries have items like these listed. Just what does the world get up to while I’m asleep? I have to confess, I would never think of owning, let alone mailing, brass knuckles, knuckledusters, blackjacks and more. And yes, these are words used on the website.
Bahamas has something against “Skimmed milk in tins”. No mailing the cow juice there! Can we send powered skim milk?
Benin doesn’t want anything to do with “Gramophone records”, are cds okay? or mp3s?
Bulgaria has a more peculiar problem. They don’t like ““Musical” cards (cards that play a sound recording when opened)”. Now doesn’t that make you think.
China prohibits “Wrist-watches, cameras, television sets, radio sets, tape records, bicycles, sewing machines, and ventilators.” I guess they are afraid they might be manufactured in China and they don’t want the shoddy material returning.
Guyana doesn’t want you to send “Furniture and fixtures” through the local post. How else can you send that sofa bed, than first class mail?
Iran doesn’t want sugar, brown or otherwise, to be mailed. Iran presents it’s own sad case of no mails. They include:
Italy has the longest list of peculiarities. I’ve taken out the usual prohibitions against food, arms and weapons, human remains, squishy parsites and bugs, etc:
Jordan wins the “lets stick our head in the sand” award with this “Advertisements concerning treatment of venereal diseases or medicinal preparations intended to serve as preventives against those diseases.” If we don’t let the people know about the problem, then it doesn’t exist. Unless they mean the snake oil remedies. But somehow I don’t think so.
Liechtenstein has the funniest – “Mini-spies (miniature wireless transmitters)”. Before I read the wireless transmitter part, I broke up into giggles at the thought of mailing itty bitty spies via first class mail.
Did you know there was such a thing as Tobacco sauce? I didn’t. You can buy them for about 10ml for $2.00 from a company in the US. Bleck.. what a terrible taste that would leave. Anyway, Madagasgar doesn’t want the stuff sent in the mail.
Quite a number of countries ban the mailing of watches and watch parts. What is the problem with allowing folks to tell the time?
Three spices make the no go list on quite a number of counties lists. The offenders are cardamon, cinnamon and cloves. Now, I’m not sure if this means the countries cannot have them mailed or if it is a general ban. Do the countries simply have a problem with these delicious flavours being sent through the post, or being sent period. Does this mean no spice cookies for Christmas?
Vanilla, sea salt, rock salt & saffron also make numerous appearances on no mail lists.
I mentioned police whistles yesterday. A couple of South and Central American countries have banned the mailing of them. Can I courier down a box lot? I doubt that. Police whistles are very effective when it comes to political protests. They make a loud, raucous noise and add to the general chaos of the protests. I suspect that is the reason behind the ban.
One country actually bans the mailing of “Japanese made shaving brushes”. How specific is that? Tanzania has no embargo about mailing body parts or human remains, just Japanese made shaving brushes. Uganda has something against Japanese shaving brushes too.
Peru has a huge list of nonsensical stuff, including artificial flowers and interior ornaments, underwear, imitation jewelry, ceramic products,… oh hell there are so many fun things on their list I can’t help myself – here it is (pared of the usual stuff):
Russia doesn’t want “Transmitters and transceivers of any power, except Panasonic radiotelephones, models KX-T7980, KX-T9000, KT–T9050, and KX-T90890.” Does the government have a deal with Panasonic? I suspect it has a much more paranoid rational – if they know the model numbers, it is easier to eavesdrop on the phones. They also don’t want any colour copiers sent through the mail.
I worry about any country that says you can’t mail “Paper and writing products (envelopes, ink, pencils, pens, erasers, chalk, etc.)” as Sri Lanka does. What is the risk of such items? Why can’t we mail a box of chalk to a school? No writing material at all! No learning for you! No literacy either.
Flypaper makes the list in Swaziland. At first I thought this was just plain weird until I remembered flypaper often contains strychnine, and I don’t think that’s something you want to handle through the post office. Plus flypaper is just plain disgusting!
Syria is fun. They don’t want women’s stockings, except for wool ones, mailed. Oh for a well turned leg! Can’t let a woman looking attractive and corrupting the weak willed men in that country. Heaven forbid! No Television equipment of any kind either. Or margarine…. Or soap (except for shaving soap)….I’m sure there is some insidious plot there, but it’s hard to see at the moment
Togo doesn’t like foreign silver coins. I wonder if they are afraid they will be melted down so forgers can make Togo silver coins? But then it takes 442 Togo Francs to equal 1 Canadian dollar (silver or otherwise), 908 Togo Francs to equal 1 British Pound or 448 Togo Francs to equal 1 US dollar, so I don’t think it is economically sound to counterfeit in this way.
I really do have too much time on my hands, don’t I?
