...Nasty, S&M Fastasy Kinda Way

This new TLC channel TV cop reality show Police Women of Broward County proves the old adage that putting lipstick on pig doesn't change the fact that it's a pig. I mean come on now; who except men infatuated with S&M bondage scenarios and who likely dream about being hassled, wrestled down, tasered and cuffed by hot looking female cops would even watch this kind of shit?

Analyzed from a socio-political perspective what this show is really about is psycho-sexualizing America's ever growing repression apparatus. So says Radly Balko one of my favorite civil liberties bloggers.

"The most obvious criticism of these shows" says Balko "is their exploitation and general tackiness. Police work is reduced to clownish pranks, adrenalin-inducing raids, and telegenic lady cops edited to invoke S&M fantasies for the shlubs watching at home. No one expects much dignity from cable networks, but you'd think, for example, that the Broward County Sheriff's Department might object to the sexualization of its female officers, or to a national ad campaign insinuating that they're sporting itchy Taser fingers."

And so it goes. Bottom line: Hot looking cop or not, being tasered hurts and it isn't any fun at all unless you're a pathological masochist, and I don't mean that in a good way either. Any guy who would really be into this kinda thing would be better advised to find a dominatrix who does this kinda thing for pay and not provoke cops to manhandle them just for cheap thrills. See, jail is no fun either. Unless you're into it I guess.

I saw the headline featured above for a blog post at Ars Technia today and it really caught my eye. That's the kind of honest but still sexy sort of reportage that makes reading a blog post or news story seem essential and important. Mainstream media (esp. newspapers) please take note! I heard a big-shot MSM person being interviewed on PBS one time say when she was an editor-trainee at a big time East Coast urban daily paper she was told that three things you didn't want in a headline were the words "Bank/s", "CIA" or "State Department" (either individually or in combination) because the readership's eyes glazed over signaling a "terminally boring alert" had been received by the brain and they just turn the page with out reading the story. I laughed out loud when I heard that remark! Boy howdy! Ain't that the truth.

When I lived out on the West coast I used to marvel at the way that wild fires broke out in the outer suburbs and no effort was spared to save the homes in the fires path. But what amazed me even more was noting (after a few years living there) that the fires all seem to happen in the same places. It shouldn't be that hard for the Forest Service or the USGS to do a study of where the fires are most likely to happen and prepare ahead of time to fight them or (even better IMHO) use the gov's eminent domain power to buy out the small lot owners in the afflicted areas and prohibit any further real estate development there as well. In other words, don't go where the fires are, eh? But that's just too rational, too easy for them though. Because here it is fire season again and the same stuff is happening all over again. Sheesh. I don't know if it's really necessary to build on mountainsides and canyons that are full up with dry chaparral that's just waiting to burn because of population pressure to build more homes or it's politically connected real estate interests pushing local governments to expand but it sure seems stupid to me. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

This news story in the Daily Mail says that nearly five million adults in the UK (that's 16% of British households!) do not work, never have worked, aren't looking for work, and don't plan to. They live off government "transfer payments"(AKA "welfare")." This boggles my mind. And the number appears to be growing too. How the hell did this come to be? Are jobs so scarce or have the past six decades of social welfare policies made work a life-style choice rather than a necessity? I don't know but it sure doesn't bode well for the future.

This list is the stuff I watch on Hulu and other places and includes shows that have long since been canceled from production. No particular order here just my list.

1. The Colony - A reality TV show were cast members do an urban survival scenario situated in a simulated post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. (Discovery Channel)

2. Warehouse 13 - A riff on the old X-Files series and wherein two mismatched US Secret Service agents are assigned to round up and store in a remote South Dakota warehouse mysterious artifacts. (SyFy channel)

3. Defying Gravity - The story of group of astronauts bound for Mars and Venus in the near future and their various personal back stories and the strange effects on them of a mysterious artifact recovered from a previous expedition to Mars. (ABC)

4. Fringe - Another riff on X-Files wherein an FBI agent and some rogue scientist-types try to tackle a mysterious techno-terror group that can move through dimensions.(Fox)

5. The Sarah Connors Chronicles - A continuation of the Terminator series set in present day Los Angeles. Ran for two seasons before Fox canceled it. (Season 1 on Hulu)

6. Dollhouse - The story of a sinister group that takes "volunteers" and reprograms them mentally in order to take on various tasks and who are being tracked by a suspended FBI agent. (Fox)

7. Dresden Files - The story of a magical wizard who help the police track down odd crimes involving the occult. It lasted one season on the SciFi channel and now on Hulu.

From the SF Chronicle Technology Blog in re research on "multi-tasking" @ work.

"When they're in situations where there are multiple sources of information coming from the external world or emerging out of memory, they're not able to filter out what's not relevant to their current goal. That failure to filter means they're slowed down by that irrelevant information."

It only seems that multi-taskers are better although many of them appear to get more done in a day than everybody else does. Hmmmm....

...because he's getting hacked too much and they're a sick of spending time and resources dealing with it. Sheesh. Is that poetic justice or what? Heh.

The Register link is found here.

...using fried chicken fillets in place of the bread. Sheesh. What's the caloric value of this monstrosity? And no doubt some people will buy and consume this thing too, even at a cost of $6.99 per item. You can see a picture and further info about the KFC heart attack special here.

The LA Times technology blog hits the whole Mac vs. PC vs. Netbook imbroglio with a dead-on observation about Apples's business model. To wit:

"...Apple has never counted on having a majority of computer users to be profitable. Apple has rarely claimed more than 10% of the market for computers. Big players such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard own much larger shares of the PC market, but nevertheless walk a financial tightrope as aggressive pricing slices away their margins. Meanwhile, Apple has been perfectly content to charge a premium to the minority of buyers willing to fork over the extra cash, even in hard times."

How true. People tend to buy what they want (when they can afford it) based on its perceived value to them. And so I buy MacBooks, VW automobiles and Alden shoes because pricey as they are I like 'em and think they're worth the money. But I also buy Bic disposable razors, Wal-Mart toilet paper, and the cheapest gasoline I can find too. Those things I just need to use and use up as cheaply as possible.

Publishers charge as much for eBooks as they do for paper ones mainly because they can. At least for now any ways says the TechDirt blog. Why the hell would I even want an eBook anyhow? Other than maybe as a text book for a course or something I can't see buying one. Just me, but if I pay out "real money" I want a "real book" in return as opposed to a virtual book. Call me a Luddite but that's how I look at it; I want value for value and eBooks just don't provide this, IMHO.

"UK Politician Vacations With Hollywood Big Shot... Suddenly Wants To Criminalize (File) Sharing" screams this headline at the Tech Dirt blog. It is indeed "funny how that works" ain't it? No, not really.

AKA tin foil hats. No kiddin'. From the BoingBoing blog. Sheesh, what a laugh. Link with picture here.

"Excited delirium" is a recently discovered medical condition newly discovered by researchers in the pay of the police products industry. WTF? This reminds me of the old Tobacco Institute a research group wholly funded by the tobacco companies that could never seem to find any scientific evidence that tobacco use was injurious to people's health. Odd eh? Not IMHO. Who pays the piper calls the tune.

Writes John Turner at Ars Technica: "...the American Chemical Society's publishing wing was almost entirely abandoning print and would focus instead on digital publishing. Since then, however, the ACS said that it will continue printing 'condensed' versions of its journals for the time being." Ars Technica link here.

"For the time being"? WTF? Okay whatever. Small academic or professional journals perhaps but printed material isn't going away at least for now. But just to be on the safe side you should really invest in buying dead tree editions of your favorite stuff and stashing it. Remember Amazon's deleting those books off of Kindle a few weeks ago? Who needs that shit? Hit the used book stores or eBay and just buy 'em to be on the safe side, eh?

Why mess with success? How did rebranding Coke do back in the '80s? And yet those crazt marketing wizards from the business schools keep trying to reinvent the wheel or in this case a recognized brand. Go figure? Here is this on that topic from a column by an ex-RadioShacker in the LA Times

"The most troubling part of the Shack re-branding is that it reflects the steep decline in the electronics hobby segment, and America's growing technical illiteracy. When I worked there, about 20% of my day was spent ferreting out tubes and transistors for ham radio enthusiasts and kids putting together school experiments."

Sheesh. That's sad but times change. But even so good luck with the rebranding strategy you souless empty suits. Doubt if it'll work any better than Coca-Cola's did though.