Price gouging helps you.....

Consider this scenario: You are thirsty -- worried that your baby is going to become dehydrated. You find a store that's open, and the storeowner thinks it's immoral to take advantage of your distress, so he won't charge you a dime more than he charged last week. But you can't buy water from him. It's sold out.

You continue on your quest, and finally find that dreaded monster, the price gouger. He offers a bottle of water that cost $1 last week at an "outrageous" price -- say $20. You pay it to survive the disaster.

You resent the price gouger. But if he hadn't demanded $20, he'd have been out of water. It was the price gouger's "exploitation" that saved your child.

It saved her because people look out for their own interests. Before you got to the water seller, other people did. At $1 a bottle, they stocked up. At $20 a bottle, they bought more cautiously. By charging $20, the price gouger makes sure his water goes to those who really need it. More here.

Unless you're poor. Of course the gouger also risks being shot dead for selling such a necessary item at such a ridiculous price.

Flood-weiser

In response to requests from relief agencies following the tremendous damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, Anheuser-Busch and its wholesalers have now shipped more than 825,000 cans of safe drinking water to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

They are required to recycle the water, so they put it into cans for emergencies like this.

Now showing - free movies!

Remember when you used to sneak into the drive-in with the lawn chair and your sweetie in tow? Soon you might get to do it for free. (my apologies to anyone too young to know what a drive-in is......)

I just love this. A new phenomenon is starting to sweep the US called Guerilla Drive-Ins. Some folks with a digital projector outfitted with an FM transmitter load it all inside a car. Every couple of weeks they send out an e-mail to a list of fans with details on the what-when-where. You show up, tune to the designated FM station and enjoy a free movie. The Mobile Movie movement started in Santa Cruz, and is now playing in Berkeley, Oakland, Minneapolis, Dallas, Los Angeles, West Chester, PA., and Tampa City, FL.

So what would Karl screen at the "White Noise Guerilla Drive-In"? Only movies he actually owns in his collection. Such as:

• Week 1 - Spinal Tap
• Week 2 - Run Lola Run
• Week 3 - Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels
• Week 4 - Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii
• Week 5 - Best in Show
• Week 6 - Comedian

"Welcome to the Hotel California........"

There are some amazingly unbelievable stories coming out of the Katrina aftermath. A site that is doing a great job of getting some of the more "grass-roots" stories out has been BoingBoing. But it's becoming clear that the incredulity is just beginning and has crossed state borders into the sites of evacuee shelters. In many cases, the victims are finding themselves in prison-like situations. No press allowed, can't cook their own food, no leaving the site - not even to go to church.

FEMA will not allow any of the kitchen facilities in any of the cabins to be used by the occupants due to fire hazards. FEMA will deliver meals to the cabins. The refugees will be given two meals per day by FEMA. They will not be able to cook. In fact, the "host" goes on to explain, some churches had already enquired about whether they could come in on weekends and fix meals for the people staying in their cabin. FEMA won't allow it because there could be a situation where one cabin gets steaks and another gets hot dogs - and... it could cause a riot. It gets worse.

He then precedes to tell us that some churches had already enquired into whether they could send a van or bus on Sundays to pick up any occupants of their cabins who might be interested in attending church. FEMA will not allow this. The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months. More here.

"We are programmed to receive. You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!"

Movie plot homeland security

I love this article at Wired News about Bruce Schneier's take on security measures since 9/11. Highlight:

The 9/11 terrorists used small pointy things to take over airplanes, so we ban small pointy things from airplanes. Richard Reid tried to hide a bomb in his shoes, so now we all have to take off our shoes. Recently, the Department of Homeland Security said that it might relax airplane security rules. It's not that there's a lessened risk of shoes, or that small pointy things are suddenly less dangerous. It's that those movie plots no longer capture the imagination like they did in the months after 9/11, and everyone is beginning to see how silly (or pointless) they always were.

Not that I care anymore......

Well, now that Josh and Suzi are out of Canadian Idol, I really don't care who wins anymore. As long as it isn't Rex. Not that I care. But there's no way Rex should even be in the top 3. Darlene doesn't agree, but anyway. He has to go tonight. Not that it really matters. The real stars have already been voted off. Rex even had the nerve to sing the Barenaked Ladies' "Call and Answer". WTF! Only Aaron has the pipes to have sung that and pull it off! Damn Rex! You butchered my fave BNL song dude!

Not that I care.........really.

"It seemed the answers were so easy to find"

Here's a piece of trivia about Supertramp's album "Even in the Quietest Moments".

The cover has a piano on a mountain covered in snow. On the piano is some sheet music labeled "Fool's Overture", a song from the album. But if you look closer on the sheet music, it's in 3/4 time while the music for Fool's Overture is in 4/4 time. That's because it's not sheet music for Fool's Overture at all. It's actually "The Star Spangled Banner" with the words "Fool's Overture" written at the top.

Subtle message?

Lists

Forbes has some list of lists. Included are 'safest cars', 'top topless beaches', 'best blogs', etc.

Advertiser's universe

If you want to create an ad, you need to be aware of the following universal truths:

• Men are obsessed with sex but will forego sex in order to watch football or drink beer.
• Women are locked in a constant battle with their weight/body shape/hairstyle.
• Career success is entirely based on your ability to impress your boss.
• Anyone with a scientific career will have a bad haircut and dreadful clothes.
• Scandinavians are, without exception, blonde and beautiful.
• Women have jobs they never do in real life, such as a dockworker (who looks like a model).
• All children hate eating fruit or vegetables.
• In ads about vision care, everyone wears glasses - except contact lens ads.
• It's OK to racially stereotype Eskimos.
• A family can load a car with kids with no screaming, crying or messes.
• People find driving deeply pleasurable, never boring or stressful.
• Women are unable to remove their glasses without shaking their hair down in slow motion.
• Driving in a brand new car leads immediately to all other traffic being kept off the road.
• Chocolate will cause women to immediately act like they're as stoned as a crack addict.
• The natural response to sipping a hot beverage is to close your eyes, smile and nod.
• New cars can miraculously drive on rain-soaked roads without getting wet.
• A famous fashion model uses shampoo you can buy in a grocery store.
• Babies never cry.
• A man cannot shave his face without being mobbed by at least one gorgeous woman.

National Geographic prophecy

How ironic that the National Geographic published this prophetic article about a hurricane hitting New Orleans back in October 2004. Most of what was described has already happened. It will be interesting to see how much of the rest comes true.

Witty sign

Sign seen in Calgary today: NAFTA is starting to sound a lot like GOTCHA!

"Taste zis fat bastard...."

I know absolutely nothing about wine. I know I like some once in a while - but I wouldn't know a good Merlot from a bad one. But I likes me a fun label. So when it came time to buy some as a gift for a friend, I chose the fun label (pictured). But there are many wines with fun labels - like the ones you can see here.

Heh

This sign pretty much sums it up for the whole country, no?

Lose your home - move to a cruise ship....

Part of the aid to survivors of Katrina will be 3 cruise ships, which will take on up to 7000 people for 6 months. It will be very interesting methinks, how these people are chosen. Yes, the people who would have already booked cruises on these 3 ships - will get a full refund.

Rural gems

At least once a year, Darlene and I go on our "Kananaskis circle route" drive. We head south out of the city down to Okotoks, then head west to Black Diamond, then south to Longview, then west again into the Rockies. After a drive through some of the most amazing scenery, we end up on the Trans Canada, which we take east to get home. The whole trip takes about three and a half hours at a leisurely pace. I like to check out eateries in these rural areas, because they have Mom & Pop places as opposed to the typical chain restaurants. Today we stumbled upon a place in Black Diamond called Marv's Classic Soda Shop. This joint is straight out of the 50's, complete with a real soda fountain, Nickelodeon player piano and a candy store that sells stuff you may not have seen on shelves for decades (like Black Bart black licorice gum). Marv cooks and can sometimes be seen strapping on the guitar and singing songs to the customers. Today it was Elvis tunes. Marv can sing! Darlene and I had a European-style hot dog, some home fries and a couple glass bottles of Coke. Check them out if you're ever in the neighbourhood.

It's a sad state of affairs

If you want to read some real, unfiltered news coming out of new orleans, give this blog a try. Take a look in particular at the September 1st entry at 10:46pm. Excerpt:

Although obviously he has no exact count, he estimates more than 10,000 people are packed into and around and outside the convention center still waiting for the buses. They had no food, no water, and no medicine for the last three days, until today, when the National Guard drove over the bridge above them, and tossed out supplies over the side crashing down to the ground below. Much of the supplies were destroyed from the drop. Many people tried to catch the supplies to protect them before they hit the ground. Some offered to walk all the way around up the bridge and bring the supplies down, but any attempt to approach the police or national guard resulted in weapons being aimed at them.

If you can find it, try to listen to the Mayor of New Orlean's interview from yesterday. The poor guy is totally frustrated with the lack of resources he has to save people and he doesn't have too much to say about the politicians either.

Pah pah pah pah...pah pah!

Think you know your bands? How about their album covers? Type in a band name and Crop of the Pops will quiz you on how well you know their album covers. There's a time limit. Are you up for it? Don't let the game music drive you nuts......

I scored 80% on the Pink Floyd quiz......

That's gonna be some late fee......

I wonder how the movie rental agencies in the Gulf states are going to react to all those movies that haven't been returned yet........

Sorry, but the situation is grim and I felt some levity was needed.

What's next?

Advertisers want your attention whenever and wherever they can get it. Well, you ain't heard nuthin' yet. If some advertisers and their purveyors get their way, when you call someone on your phone, instead of hearing a "ring back" signal, you'll be hearing ads - until you hang up or the other party answers.

Oh - and if you follow that link above, you'll be greeted by an ad before you're redirected to the story.

New Orleans is sinking....

Our thoughts go out to the unfortunate residents of New Orleans and area, who likely will not get to go home for months, and will be lucky to find anything left when they do return. Check out the larger version of the image above here.

Word to the wise folks, there are many immoral people who are taking advantage of your generosity having set up fake relief web sites. So I'd stick with the known, trusted organizations and don't respond to e-mail requests to visit these sites, as the Red Cross , etc. do not solicit via e-mail.

Cafeteria good for something....

Say what you will about my work's cafeteria, but they add an important public service in serving the soups that they offer each day.

What do I mean? Well, if you want to know what's on sale at the grocery store this week, you only have to examine the ingredients of the daily soups. Specifically, look for the copious amounts of unnecessary ingredients and you've found the sale item. Today for example, there was a lot of green pepper in the hamburger soup.

Goin' to buy me some green peppers.........

This little piggy......

Sometimes you find things that just make you laugh. Like these everyday items changed into Korean cartoon characters.

This ought to be good.......

You've probably heard about the RIAA and its wonderful "let's make examples of our customer base by suing them into oblivion" campaign against alleged file sharers. Most people settle by agreeing to pay the many thousand dollars, unable to amass a legal campaign against the music industry's legal brawn. Until now. Patricia Santangelo has taken a chance and decided to fight and has refused to settle. Lucky for us, we can follow along with the proceedings. The legal team that is representing her is blogging the event, even going so far as to show the filed documents. Elsewhere, someone captured the transcript of Patricia's (seemingly) first visit to court (before she had found a lawyer). It's sad to see the RIAA lawyer try to finagle the defendant out of her rights right in front of the judge. Luckily, the judge was not buying it. An enlightening read.

Update: The lawyer defending Patricia says he believes their firm could defend lots of RIAA defendants, because they'll recoup the legal costs when they win.

Canada's oldest corporation

We were walking into the downtown Hudson's Bay Company department store and I was greeted by a plaque announcing: "Founded 1670". I guess there aren't too many stores anymore that can say that, eh?

For those of you that don't know your Canadian history, the company used to own a significant part of northern and western Canada (known as Rupert's Land). By the way, Pro Pelle Cutem, translates roughly as "a skin for a skin".

Trying to get my mind out of the sewer....

Nobody wants to walk in a park only to step in a gift left behind by a dog. But now that the law dictates you must pick up after your pooch, we're literally throwing the problem into plastic bags that don't biodegrade in the landfill. But Darlene came up with a logical solution. Build poop drop-off pits that lead right into the sewer. What a concept.

Let's just scrap it, OK?

So the gun registry has been in place in Canada now for a few years. It is not a popular topic of conversation, especially in Western Canada. I decided to scour the Internet for statistics that may prove getting everyone to register their guns has resulted in a reduction in murders with guns. I was not successful in finding those kinds of figures. If anything, the rates have stayed about the same. In cities like Toronto, the murder rate has gone up.

I'm not a rocket scientist, but I think making people register their guns (for a fee) only inconveniences hunters and gun collectors - not criminals. If we actually looked at the percentage of gun related crimes committed with registered guns, I bet the number would be quite low.

I suggest the money (approaching $2 billion) be used to hire more police officers.

Best action figure ever!

How can these Napoleon Dynamite action figures not be sold out? How I ask you? Available in November.

Stop! Or I'll mash you.....

If you liked the Darth Tater Mr Potatohead I mentioned back in January (come on, you know you did), then you'll love the sequel - the Spud Trooper Mr Potatohead. Yes, that's a masher in his hand.....

Experts indeed....

The 'experts' at MTV and Rolling Stone magazine released their 100 greatest pop songs since 1963 list. Experts - pthrrrbbbtt! They obviously did not take sales figures into account, because the Number one selling single of all time is Elton John's tribute-to-Princess-Diana version of Candle in the Wind, which did not even make the list. The Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive was #94. Having worked for Polygram Records when Saturday Night Fever was being sold, I can tell you - that puppy was popular - but it only made #94 on their list.

"Shut off the valve!"

The trade war over Canadian softwood lumber continues with the US.

I have a solution - it's brazen, but it could work. "You want our oil? The softwood comes with it...." Oh yeah - and the cattle too.