Need Something More Random?
My blog is worth $3,387.24.
How much is your blog worth?
Phil Booth Astrological Forecast for Taurus - Aug. 31, 2007:
"Be prepared to be unprepared. No matter how you try to cover yourself for every eventuality, an unexpected development is likely to catch you off guard. The sky suggests there will be a smart way to turn a tricky situation to your advantage."
Two days ago, I asked to have one really routine day; no more surprises, I requested. Well, maybe tomorrow will be plain.
Tags: [Phil Booth] [Horoscope] [Taurus]
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency released this warning yesterday:
Undeclared Walnuts in Bella Cucina Cookies
The recall notice begins: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning people with
allergies to walnuts not to consume Bella Cucina
Death by Chocolate cookies. The affected product may contain walnuts which are not declared on the
label... (Read the entire notice)
So, Death by Chocolate cookies are being recalled because eating them may result in death?
Tags: [Anaphylaxis] [Nut Allergy] [Bella Cucina]
[Socrates] [Hemlock Poison] [Death by Chocolate]
[C.F.I.A.]
Three weeks ago, I introduced readers to the Bulletproof Backpack. This is a real product, designed by Mike Pelonzi and Joe Curran of Boston. You can view the Product Page at MJ Safety Solutions.
I made the joke about Kevlar for Kindergartners. Just a few days later, I read about U.K.-based BladeRunner that has responded to parent requests for improved safety in school uniforms with its unique Kevlar Blazers. Send BladeRunner your child's outfit and they will add a Kevlar lining to it. Real product.
Then Trutex, another uniform supplier in the United Kingdom, showed off its product development team who are working on a way to incorporate GPS in its school uniforms. A safety net for parents, the microchip in the waistband or collar will allow them to monitor their child via a secure website. Schools are in the pro-camp for these devices - the chip's being touted as a tool to reduce truancy. In fact, according to surveys conducted by Trutex, only "children aged over 13 were less enthusiastic, fearing it would mean that their parents could spy on them." The teens can relax for this school year. The product team still has to find a tamper-proof circuit that doesn't break down in the wash. Still real, just not on the market yet. (Insert your own "No Child Left Behind" jokes)
Today, all the talk seems to be about Toddler Taser brought to you by Bulletproof Baby. Metro (U.K) covered the product testing of a stroller yesterday.
Bulletproof Baby is a viral marketing site linked to Shoot 'Em Up, not an actual supplier of protective gear and equipment. Was Metro really fooled? Some of its readers were. From a post at Jack-be-Nimble: "At first I wasn't sure if it was a parody or not and then I realized that it was not."
Really? You weren't tipped off to any satire even though the order desk is located in Iowa?!
Tags: [Bulletproof Clothing] [MJ Safety Solutions]
[BladeRunner] [Trutex Uniforms]
[Toddler Taser] [Bulletproof Baby] [P.T. Barnum]
[Shoot 'Em Up] [Clive Owen] [Paul Giamatti] [Monica Bellucci]
[New Line Cinema]
It's August. Bittersweet.
Summers' door is closing behind us. In just weeks, a new school year will begin.
Families begin the march to the malls; the tradition of back-to-school shopping must be maintained. Bags containing new shoes, stylish sportswear or pristine uniforms are proudly toted. The bags with the pencils, pens, protractors and paper are dragged. Something about this bag elicits whining and requires a slower pace.
Kids want the Five Star Sound binder, so they can connect their mp3 players in class. Parents consider the item's practicality, novelty, style and value in the purchase process.
Boston parents Mike Pelonzi and Joe Curran want their backpack, My Child's Pack, to be among your back-to-school necessities.
The backpacks, which will cost $175, have a super-lightweight bullet-proof plate sewn into the back which weighs no more than a bottle of water. Pelonzi said the material used is a secret.
That's right. A bullet-proof backpack. According to Pelonzi, "during a three-year testing phase, [the backpacks] stood up to bullets as well as machete, hatchet and Ka-bar knife attacks."
Kevlar for kindergartners. Flak jackets for freshmen.
Tags: [Bulletproof Backpacks] [Mike Pelonzi] [Joe Curran]
[Back-to-School Shopping] [Flak Jackets] [Bulletproof]
I don't shop at Wal-Mart. There are many reasons.
I don't like the way they do business. Here's how my relationship with Wal-Mart started:
| When Wal-Mart came to Canada, it initiated a campaign to convince shoppers the merchandise in its stores was Canadian merchandise. It looked to me like Wal-Mart was disguising the truth. Sure, it buys merchandise from a warehouse located in Canada. That warehouse receives goods from an offshore supplier. The shipment was ordered and arranged by Wal-Mart. A Canadian truck delivers the cartons to the final destination. I know a little about Canadian content and I wasn't buying their claim. Wal-Mart hadn't demonstrated enough Canadian content for me. |  Bryan Adams' album Waking Up the Neighbors was deemed ineligible for Juno award nomination in 1992. The CRTC concluded that the album did not meet Canadian Content (can-con) criteria.Amid tremendous controversy in 1991, Adams, his management and A&M Records convinced the CRTC to amend its criteria for Canadian content to include a Canadian artist who has collaborated with a non-Canadian and receives at least half of the credit for both music and lyrics. All about Bryan Adams Tags: [Bryan Adams] [Bruce Allen] [CanCon] [Juno Awards] [CRTC] |
The government in Mexico is concerned that Wal-Mart is exploiting local customs to increase the retail giant's profitability.
Wal-Mart is behaving a little badly? I'm shocked!
Thousands of adolescents work as unpaid baggers in Wal-Mart’s Mexican stores.
(Joseph Contreras, Newsweek, July 31, 2007)
Wal-Mart's Global Code of Ethics prohibits work without compensation.
(Click Picture to Read Excerpt)
When a company recruits teens to be volunteers, doesn't that make those teens employees?
"Wal-Mart de Mexico reported net earnings of $1.148 billion in 2006 and $280 million in profits in the second quarter of this year." Federal District Labor Secretary Benito Mirón Lince points out 'Wal-Mart has the capability to pay the minimum wage [of less than $5 a day], and this [unpaid baggers] represents an injustice.'
Wal-Mart explains that the company complies with the International Labor Organization's guidelines that prohibit employing youth under the age of 14. (At least since 2005, when "Wal-Mart agreed to pay the U.S. Labor Department $135,540 in civil money penalties to settle charges of 24 child-labor violations.")
A volunteer is "a person who performs a service willingly and without pay." Wal-Mart provides accident insurance to its volunteer baggers, and pays bonuses for academic achievement. Once you pay a volunteer, he is no longer a volunteer; he is an employee.
The government of Mexico doesn't like it, but is nervous to push Wal-Mart to change. Wal-Mart is the largest private company employer in the country. Mexico simply can't afford those 150,000 workers to be out of work.
I'm usually quiet about my preference to shop elsewhere; but I consider this too outrageous to ignore.
Wal-Mart squeezes the labor force in the name of low prices. Squeezing Lower Prices
Mexico Labor Report 2006
Tags: [Wal-Mart] [Walmart de Mexico]
[I.L.O.] [Newsweek] [Joseph Contreras]
Hy-per-chon-dri-a (noun)
The frenetic combustion in one's brain that creates external and internal disease and makes one very unpleasant company to family, peers, the medical community and even oneself.
I feel badly that I enjoyed Brian Frazer's memoir Hyperchondriac: One Man's Quest to Hurry Up And Slow Down this much. Frazer describes and explores his dysfunctional family, and the role of those relationships as he grew from a wired youth into an angry man. Frazer hops from one alternative to the next in an effort to understand and manage his anger.
At his wife's suggestion, he enrolled in Yoga classes but found that first lesson did more harm than good. He registered for Kabbalah classes. Enlightenment escaped him, but the experience did underscore his intolerances. His decision to try Distance Reiki demonstrates how desperate he was to find 'the cure' for his anxiety. Reiki offers hands-on healing to one's energy in order to heal the spirit...Frazer engaged in this spiritual healing via email. You've got to read his account of that session.
I'm still not sure whether I tore through this book because a look at Frazer's problems made my own life seem "normal"; or because I've tried some 'out-there' alternative therapies to resolve my health issues. I might accept Reiki over the phone (at least there's some contact with the healer); but email?
The publisher describes Hyperchondriac as "uncomfortably true and always entertaining." That's exactly what it is.
Tags:
[Brian Frazer] [Hyperchondriac] [Anger Management]
