November 2006 Archives

Young people look up to other young people. Unfortunately, many of the role models young people choose to use to model are not worthy of imitation or the attention. If you ever needed proof of why young people should not look up to celebrities and imitate their morality and their behavior in the classic Aristotlean way of learning and mimicry, please read actress Lindsay Lohan's incoherent -- and frankly, illiterate -- public sympathy card to genius film director Robert Altman's family she released on Tuesday to see the sad, living proof, of a Long Island public education and the perils of false celebrity.

Ms. Lohan

Yesterday, in a watershed moment in the history of the disabled, U.S. District Judge James Robertston finally instructed the United States Treasury to find a way for the Blind to discriminate between paper money denominations.

Twenty


(UPDATE:  UrbanSemiotic.com no longer runs on WordPress.com.  We moved to Movable Type 4.1 on Pair Networks.  We are keeping this article online in order to preserve the record.)

We are running the CUTLINE theme here on your favorite Urban Semiotic and I wanted to bring back our famous Rotating Image Headers that change with every fresh re-load of a page. 

I recently heard on the radio 45% of American Black males do not graduate from high school. Why does their education end before their 18th birthday? Is there something culturally askew where education has no value? Are they born not to succeed in life? Is there a genetic code that denies them fruitful opportunity for living? The answer to those questions is a resounding: No!

The Panopticon -- a prison so built radially that a guard at a central position can see all the prisoners -- is also known as the infamous and ever-vigilant Foucauldian unblinking eye of authority watching every move a prisoner makes while remaining rough and ready to strike punishment as often as needed, has come to the streets of Harlem as "Sky Watch."

The Sky Watch, about two stories tall, consists of a booth for a cop that stands atop a tower that collapses when the officer is ready to leave. The booth, which gives the cop a line of sight from 20 feet up, has four cameras, a high-powered spotlight and various sensors. The digital cameras, which continue recording when the booth is unstaffed, save the video to a hard drive.

The units, which cost from $40,000 to $100,000 apiece, are also being used by the U.S. Border Patrol and cops in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Dallas and Fort Worth. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the department has leased one or two of the devices and hopes to eventually have five. Since they're moveable, they're more flexible than fixed cameras. One tower was installed about three weeks ago at 129th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem - drawing cheers and jeers.

Four Corners: Detroit Lakes

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This article was written by Kathakali Chatterjee.

The first question I asked my roommate when I reached Fargo, ND was "where is the nearest lake?" "The closest one is 20 miles from here" - was a strong enough answer to dampen my mood on the very first day. At my previous school, the nearest lake was a two minute walk away. I decided to learn to live without a lake. In fact, I learnt to love it. I discovered the plus point of living on a flat land - you can actually see a lot more sky! You can actually watch a gorgeous sunset like this on your way back to Fargo from Detroit Lakes in west central Minnesota!

Detroit Lakes

Have you ever listened to a single song over and over and over again on a regular basis? I do and I have and I will. I seem to pick a "Song for the Day" that matches my mood and then I let iTunes play that song over and over and over for up to 12 hours at a time.
Welcome to the second round of my Starbucks Whole Bean Bag Art Review where I share and celebrate the art encompassing a one pound bags of Starbucks coffee. 
Janna found this wonderful t-shirt for me as a Thanksgiving Day gift. "The Original" appears above the image and "Founding Fathers" below.

The Original Founding Fathers

Now that's a righteous history lesson! The shirt was created by intiarts.

Tofurkey Time!

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Today we will be chowing down on a ball of Tofurkey stuffed with stuffing. Tofurkey is a semi-delicious,Tofurkey! Vegan, fat-free "turkey replacement" and it is quite delish. Some people who still eat turkey sometimes ask those of us who don't eat animals why we would choose to eat an "animal replacement" that tastes like the meat we are trying to avoid. To those silly few my answer to their inquiry is this: "You obviously haven't tried Tofurkey, because if you had, you'd know it tastes nothing like turkey!" There are many Vegans among us who are unable to enjoy the soy health benefits of Tofurkey because of its peculiar taste, and we do pity those poor few as we slice and dice our hot and juicy ball of tofu -- all in the name of celebrating the land and delighting in grand company.
The perversion of the historical accuracy of how our ancestors lived, and how we currently live, is created by preserving only expensive possessions -- tokens, icons, valuables - and in the purposeful construction of indestructible architectural monuments used by the privileged few.
Neil Young makes me cry in the noble, touching, way genius creates art that erupts into an intellectual and emotional explosion of the senses in a single moment of blinding understanding. When you've experienced a Neil Young song in that manner you don't look at other musicians the same way because not only can they never inspire you they cannot even inspire their own spirit.

Neil Young young!


In yesterday's Washington Post, Rep. Charles Rangel from New York claimed the best way to make sure we don't head into another private war-of-revenge like Iraq is to re-institute a draft for mandatory military service via the Selective Service System.

Bush bodies

On Catastrophic Blog Devastation

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When you can't login to your blog or when your blog is offline, do you have a physiological reaction in addition to an emotional response?

The Shat is Back!

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"The Shat is back!" -- that's the ABC television promotional slogan for The Shat!William Shatner's unwatchable new gameshow, Show Me the Money!

Am I the only one offended by that slogan?

I guess the FCC and the ABC censors don't get the tawdry joke -- that is no joke at all -- because the show's on-air promotional material also uses "Shat-Tastic!" and "The Shat Hits the Fans!" and other dreary "Shat-isms" to dirty up the eye and ear of the wanton network viewer.

I wonder if the ridiculous dancers on the show are referred to as "The Shatted" and if the contestants are called "The Shatted Upon?"

"Shat" -- in case you are not aware -- is the past and past participle of: "Sh*t."


Publisher Judith Regan is playing defense against the outrage and the hatred spewing at her for the monetization of her interview and book with O.J. Simpson. Many expert commentators have taken on the O.J. resurrection, but only yesterday did Regan creep forward to explain what O.J. never did: "Why?"

If OJ Did It

Last night, former Dallas Cowboys football superstar Dancing with the Starsrunning back Emmitt Smith and his professional dance partner Cheryl Burke won ABC television's wildly popular contest Dancing with the Stars.

Moments after Emmitt's win last night, the ABC message board was filled with racist tripe claiming the reason Emmitt won was because he is Black not because he was the better dancer.

What that racist mentality fails to accept is Emmitt is not a dancer and if you watched him on the show for the entire season you saw him incrementally and dramatically improve each week.
The production of Osama bin Laden's bin Ladenbody -- dead or alive -- will soon be in our future as will the body of Saddam Hussein hanging dead from its neck.

We will have successfully produced the body -- but are we perpetuating the ghost?

Do Osama and Saddam have more value and resonance in death than they had in their lives?

Is there a downside to assassinating charismatic madmen?

By providing their deaths, have we gifted them immortality and martyrdom and a reason for their evil example to be followed by others?

How should bad people be dealt with in the world?

Can we heal the wounds terrorism rips open by engaging in a dialogue with the neighbors of the terrorists?

Is conversation better than condemnation?


The Evil in You

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Do you believe there is evil in you?
evil: profoundly immoral and malevolent embodying or associated with the forces of the devil harmful or tending to harm extremely unpleasant
If so, how did the evil find you? Are people born evil? If you are evil-free, how did that happen? Have you ever been accused of being evil? If so, how did you respond?
I was thrilled to wake up this morning to find I can now offer a Google Personalized Start Page for Boles University and that thrill was provided by Google Apps for Your Domain! That means you can have a branded Google homepage for all your users. You begin the customization by changing the CNAME record for your domain. Then you can create a start page URL linked to your domain that might look something like this:

http://start.bolesuniversity.com

Is "Pre-Glaucoma" the new "Fibromyalgia" -- an invented medical label meant to scare via "diagnosis" without medical certainty? Is "Pre-Glaucoma" a new insurance power naming scheme invented to earn easy money for doctors by giving them the means to get paid by checking off a box on a form? 

The Shea Nut Butter Report

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Last week in my Aveeno Intensive Relief Hand Cream Review, Jason's Shea Nut ButterI was challenged to try Jason's Shea Nut Butter and I am ready to share my Shea Nut Butter experience after a week's worth of use. 

When you crack open a jar of Jason's Shea Nut Butter, you are greeted with a texture and an aroma you would not expect.

The texture of the butter is hard and granular and the smell is of coconuts. 

Big Bloody Eyeball

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Today I will have an eye exam. I always leave the doctor's office looking like this:

Big Bloody Eyeball!

New York wants to let you change your birth certificate gender without having surgery.

Transgender
Donald Rumsfeld is out as Secretary of Defense. His legacy for failure and bloodshed will rival Mengele, Franco and "Baby Doc" for the killing and suffering they alone wrought upon the people of this earth.

Yesterday's national election results send one clear message to the Bush administration: The game is over. The jig is up. Ye shall come clean.

2006 Election

Shouldn't the ability to bomb the world back to the Stone Age be the right and responsibility of every nation in the world?

Building a Better Bomb

In the comments for my Seven Days on WordPress.com article, I said the following in a comment when asked about using my BlackBerry during 18 hour workdays:
Our good friend Mark (aka Podz) sent me an email this morning warning me against this site that popped up on his local radar -- http://bolesbooks.kateblogs.org/ -- because that site was stealing our Urban Semiotic content via a faked "BolesBooks" subdomain -- which I own as a full domain but not as that blog URL -- I visited that thieving site and responded to Mark:
When you speak, do you ever end a sentence with "at" -- and I don't meant the "@" sign, either! Here are some examples: 
If you spend your day typing or working with your hands outdoors, then you know how quickly your hands can become wrung out and dry. I have always and forever been on a quest for the Best Hand Cream ever and, after using the Aveeno Intensive Relief Hand CreamAveeno Intensive Relief Hand Cream, I can tell you I have found the Holy Grail of my search. I can now die happy with moisture-rich hands. The secret to Aveeno Intensive Relief Hand Cream seems to be the "Natural Colloidal Oatmeal" embedded in its goodness. "Colloidal" -- as described by Oxford:
homogeneous, noncrystalline substance consisting of large molecules or ultramicroscopic particles of one substance dispersed through a second substance. Colloids include gels, sols, and emulsions; the particles do not settle and cannot be separated out by ordinary filtering or centrifuging like those in a suspension.
Okay, then. Aveeno Intensive Relief Hand Cream is never greasy and it "lasts through hand washing" and it "moisturizes for 24 hours" and -- above all -- it is "NON-GREASY!" You couldn't want for better tenderness and caring in a cream that doesn't coat your hands and fingers in a slimy grease.  It's a manly hand cream, but made for a woman, too. There is no scent to the Aveeno Intensive Relief Hand Cream and while it may be expensive at $9.00 USD for 3.5 oz (100g), you really can't argue with your wallet over the comfort-to-price ratio. I highly recommend Aveeno Intensive Relief Hand Cream for anyone who suffers from dry hands but doesn't want that sweet and sickly greasy feeling. If you have discovered a better moisturizing, non-greasy hand cream, please tell us about it now!

Should We Challenge Beliefs?

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Should we challenge beliefs we do not share, or should we accept the beliefs of others as in situ realities even though beliefs are, by definition, not framed by facts? 
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is taking an idea from Mexico and plans to employ it in the greatest city in the world that still struggles with a tough disconnect between wealth and poverty as well as the continued wide divide between children and privilege by paying parents to take care of their children:

New York is searching for new ways to fight persistent poverty, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Commission for Economic Opportunity has recommended useful reforms. To encourage families to participate in these programs, the mayor hopes to recruit private donors to provide parents with a cash incentive to make the right choices for their children -- like taking them in for regular checkups and making sure they stay in school.

About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries from November 2006 listed from newest to oldest.

October 2006 is the previous archive.

December 2006 is the next archive.

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Recent Comments

  • Kathakali Chatterjee: It depends David! What if they are just incapable to read more
  • David W. Boles: I guess you need to be mindless to just accumulate read more
  • Kathakali Chatterjee: That's a lot of hard work David! Most people want read more
  • David W. Boles: What is wrong with thinking hard, Katha? Why is that read more
  • Kathakali Chatterjee: Heh! Thanks David! I agree. Majority do not want to read more
  • David W. Boles: If you'd asked me two days ago, Katha, I would've read more
  • David W. Boles: I am remembering your Cityscape likes, Katha! SMILE! A true read more
  • Kathakali Chatterjee: One question about the image David, it seems very familiar...from read more
  • Kathakali Chatterjee: Hi David! Sydney did look better than Nashville - for read more
  • David W. Boles: Hi Nicola! I love your Mona Lisa story. I'm right read more