Urban Semiotic: March 2007 Archives

The Great American Toothache Diet

By David W. Boles on March 31, 2007 10:22 AM | 26 Comments | 1 TrackBack

I have discovered a way to lose six pounds in three days. The process is simple, if painful, and I wouldn't recommend it for the faint of teeth. I suffer from having a "meat trough." If you don't know what it means to have a meat trough, then color yourself lucky and move along!

Continue reading The Great American Toothache Diet.

The New Research: Search Not Read

By David W. Boles on March 30, 2007 8:31 AM | 21 Comments | 1 TrackBack

I read an interesting article the other day

that I printed out for safekeeping and then promptly lost.

That article is either here somewhere or it is in a trash bin elsewhere starting its decomposition process.

The ideas the article planted within me, however, are strong and growing into seedlings that I will share with you now for watering or cutting down.

The core of the article argued that "The New Research" means students and faculty and others in need of information no longer read what they refer to or quote: Doing online searches has replaced reading the text.

Continue reading The New Research: Search Not Read.

Trumping the Droplet

By David W. Boles on March 29, 2007 10:59 AM | 50 Comments

I have always been appalled by the idea that if a person has "one drop"

of "Black" blood in them, then they are "Black."

If you have "The Drop," then no other ethnicity, skin color, or culture can trump that Black droplet.

I wonder where that notion of a single drop of blood making you Black was invented.

It seems impossible that idea came from the scientific community.

A single drop of pure water doesn't make the ocean any less salty. Adding a single speck of sugar to cookie dough doesn't make the cookie any sweeter.

If Racial identification by blood droplet isn't chemical or scientific -- then is it a cultural condemnation and a preservation of a social pecking order used to falsely mediate expectation?

Continue reading Trumping the Droplet.

When the Body Bolts from the Mind

By David W. Boles on March 28, 2007 9:29 AM | 17 Comments | 1 TrackBack

I strongly believe in the mind/body dyad. Your brain affects your body. Your body affects your brain. You cannot disconnect that dyad and you cannot prefer one against the other without creating catastrophic consequences for longevity and prescience.

The mind/body dyad requires the health of the truth to survive into longevity. When lies are purposefully perpetuated, when mistruths are cogently offered to fool and persuade the people from reality, when facts are hidden-by-design to skew the past for selfish gain, death is the wages of that sin against the core moral values of humanity.

Continue reading When the Body Bolts from the Mind.

The Multitasking Myth

By David W. Boles on March 27, 2007 8:47 AM | 18 Comments

In our current, modern, lives -- where we are ruled by our

still untamed electronic frontier -- we are led to believe more is more and less is not enough.

Instead of concentrating on one thing as our ancestors did -- making a fire, milking the cows, mowing the lawn -- we are now expected to do three things simultaneously and do them all well.

This push to do everything at the same time is called Multitasking and scientific research is beginning to prove that doing more than one thing at a time divides us, shears away our attention and actually creates messy work in the end:

Continue reading The Multitasking Myth.

Primate Morality and Shared Values: Are We Aping Them?

By David W. Boles on March 26, 2007 10:04 AM | 20 Comments | 4 TrackBacks

In a recent New York Times article, it was argued that

advanced primates are moral beings with identifiable values sets.

We have wondered here on the same topics and about the inspiration of DNA and evolution in articles like From Ape to Man to God. Primates care about each other even if it risks their own well-being.

They make informed choices that bear on "doing the right thing" for the community and not only the self.

Is it scientifically provable that morality is not a possibility but a genetic mandate for survival?

It is humanly probable that our primate ancestors provided us clues in our shared, genetic, code not to harm each other and to instead negotiate and socialize and to get along without killing?

Is it our ape-like morality that allowed us to become upright and upstanding and evolved, cogent, beings with empathy as well as morality?

Continue reading Primate Morality and Shared Values: Are We Aping Them?.

Moving Back to Media Temple From Mosso

By David W. Boles on March 25, 2007 10:52 AM | 45 Comments | 1 TrackBack

UPDATE: April 23, 2008. We wanted you to know this Urban Semiotic blog -- and all of David W. Boles' domains and blogs are now solely hosted by Pair Networks! We will update this article as circumstances demand and we'll leave this article online to protect the chain of understanding.

One of the signs of insanity is doing the same habit of action over and over and over again while expecting a different result each time. This time, however, I think I have broken free of expectation by beating my head against the Grid Sharing Theory of Website Hosting wall one too many times. After three months of struggling to overcome the limits of Mosso hosting, I decided last night to move back to our old favorite -- Media Temple -- and my previous Dedicated-Virtual (dv) hosting setup:

Continue reading Moving Back to Media Temple From Mosso.

Life Chocolate Oat Crunch Cereal Review

By David W. Boles on March 24, 2007 10:43 AM | 30 Comments | 1 TrackBack

There have been few moments in my life when I've tasted something to eat and I am immediately forced to react to that tasting by spitting the food back out of my mouth. That unfortunate, autoimmune, pre-vomit-spitting-response happened to me again this week. I was stuck in an unfamiliar place and I was offered a way to feed my hunger that I had to accept if I wanted anything to eat over the next 12 hours.

Continue reading Life Chocolate Oat Crunch Cereal Review.

Moving Gmail to Gmail and Start Changing Colors

By David W. Boles on March 23, 2007 10:37 AM | 42 Comments | 1 TrackBack

We have recently wondered how to Get Email out of Gmail and into Gmail and Google have quietly provided us that answer while officially denying the feature exists. When you currently search Help on the Google Gmail website to see if you can "Fetch Mail from Another Google Account" this is the answer provided:

Continue reading Moving Gmail to Gmail and Start Changing Colors.

CBS News Links Urban Semiotic

By David W. Boles on March 22, 2007 8:55 AM | 14 Comments | 1 TrackBack

When you write a blog you always wonder who is reading you and why and if what you create is making a difference or not. Here in your favorite Urban Semiotic we work hard to provide you new thoughts in the form of fresh articles seven days a week. We average between 5,000 and 7,000 new words for your eyes and mind every week.

Continue reading CBS News Links Urban Semiotic.

Things We Have Lost

By David W. Boles on March 21, 2007 9:36 AM | 30 Comments | 1 TrackBack

Today we live in perpetual

moments of melancholia that now define our modern lives. We do not live in a state of regret, but we live with an ongoing consciousness of things we have lost. How do we handle the recognition that, over the last four years, so many precious things have been forever stolen from us?

We have lost our sense of sanctuary. There are no safe places. We cannot find protection in schools, mosques, churches, or even with each other. We have lost our right to privacy.

We walk the streets and we are watched. We enter public buildings and we are required to provide ID just to remain in the building.

We surveil our neighbors. People different from us -- in color and tone and financial stature -- are our silent enemies and are ripe for the reporting. We have lost our joy to depravity.

Continue reading Things We Have Lost.

Stalking Sexual Predators in the Deaf-Blind Community

By David W. Boles on March 20, 2007 9:48 AM | 18 Comments

One of the most vulnerable

minorities around us in the world are those who are Deaf and Blind. Being Deaf -- or just being Blind -- is enough of a challenge to survival but those who are hit with both disabilities in the same body are truly the world's misbegotten and they deserve our highest protection.

There are approximately 40,000 people in the United States who are deafblind. Hearing and vision are the primary senses through which we learn and collect data. Hearing is the basis of communication and 80 percent of what we learn is through the visual sense.

Continue reading Stalking Sexual Predators in the Deaf-Blind Community.

Pretend Police: NYPD Auxiliary Officers

By David W. Boles on March 19, 2007 9:22 AM | 30 Comments | 1 TrackBack

On March 14, 2007 two, young, volunteer, NYPD Auxiliary police officers were murdered gangland style in Greenwich Village, by a crazy guy with a gun. Both volunteers were in pursuit of the killer who had just gunned down a pizzeria worker. Here's the execution of one Auxiliary officer caught on tape. The killer crosses the street to shoot the Auxiliary officer crouching for cover behind a car:

Continue reading Pretend Police: NYPD Auxiliary Officers.

Determined Democratic Demonization

By David W. Boles on March 18, 2007 10:26 AM | 24 Comments

The political prosecution of eight United States Attorneys by Alberto Gonzales' Depart of Justice is blowing up the Bush presidency more than the immoral war in Iraq ever could because this issue is something everyone can understand and rally against as being un-American in its core. The Washington Post reports Gonzales' days are numbered as Bush's loyal legal lapdog because Republican support for the president's pernicious policies is finally aching away:

Continue reading Determined Democratic Demonization.

Alcoholism and Irish Blood

By David W. Boles on March 17, 2007 10:48 AM | 24 Comments | 2 TrackBacks

Today is St. Patrick's Day in

America and while the day is intended to celebrate Saint Patrick, it is really a day for celebrating the Irish and getting drunk. There are all kinds of St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

We have parades. We have pints of green beer selling for a nickel a glass. We wear green or live in fear of getting pinched.

Beyond the laughter, the bawdiness and the ubiquitous curse of The Green Beer -- I wonder about a deeper cultural and ethnic issue bothering the whole idea of getting drunk in the name of a Saint in celebration of cultural icons. If there another national holiday dedicated to one culture -- where the overarching idea of the day is to get blasted and bleary-eyed? Is there a reason people live to get drunk on St. Patty's Day?

Do we honor the Irish by getting falling-down drunk?

Is there a genetic predisposition in the Irish population for alcoholism and, if there is, what does that say about our need to celebrate St. Patrick's Day by imbibing?

Continue reading Alcoholism and Irish Blood.

The Deadly Danger of Wikipedia and Corrupt Community Research

By David W. Boles on March 16, 2007 9:48 AM | 40 Comments | 3 TrackBacks

The problem with unrestricted community involvement in online research is the great risk to truth and accuracy in the reporting. If one community member cannot be trusted, then the entire veracity of the rest of the community -- guilty or not -- is also placed under the microscopic and burning Panopticonic eye of doubt and disingenuousness.

Continue reading The Deadly Danger of Wikipedia and Corrupt Community Research.

Seminal and Ovaric: Using Sexist Language

By David W. Boles on March 15, 2007 10:18 AM | 22 Comments | 3 TrackBacks

Yesterday we discussed -- Duplicity and Immorality: Women and Gays in the Military -- and in our conversation concerning that hot topic, we wondered aloud about traditional gender roles, inborn strengths, and the unwittingly transmitted semiotics of the traditionally and artificially applied mainstream female façade. That dialogue brought me to wondering about language and how we choose words to define ideas down through the centuries as we try to get along with each other. Here's a flowchart demonstrating the clear mess we're in with language acquisition, vocabulary provenance and the propriety of ideas expressed in symbols on a page.

Continue reading Seminal and Ovaric: Using Sexist Language.

Duplicity and Immorality: Women and Gays in the Military

By David W. Boles on March 14, 2007 9:12 AM | 21 Comments | 1 TrackBack

On Monday, four star Marine General Peter Pace -- speaking in his current role as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the United States military -- said, like adultery, being Gay is immoral and that Gays should not be allowed to "openly" serve their country in the armed forces. Over 65,000 gay and lesbian soldiers currently serve in the military under the current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" fallacy of a policy that General Pace, pictured below, must enforce.

Continue reading Duplicity and Immorality: Women and Gays in the Military.

Secrets Feats of Amazing Strength!

By David W. Boles on March 13, 2007 9:31 AM | 50 Comments | 1 TrackBack

We all have hidden talents. We all share Secret Feats of Amazing Strength!

There is no shame in quietly revealing your Super Powers.

Today I will share with you three of my most secret -- yet most incredible -- hidden abilities. Double Vulcan Spock has nothing on me.

I am not only able to do the Vulcan hand sign at will with one hand -- without using my other hand to evenly spread my fingers -- I am able to open and close the Vulcan greeting as ever I wish.

This "Vulcan Scissors Effect" isn't limited to just my dominant hand.

I can open and close BOTH HANDS in Vulcan greeting at the same time and independently -- at will -- while others stare at me in awe.

Continue reading Secrets Feats of Amazing Strength!.

Experian and the Free Credit Report Conundrum

By David W. Boles on March 12, 2007 9:17 AM | 16 Comments

I'm sure you've seen and heard on American television the "Free Credit Report Dot Com" commercial and the insinuatingly craven melody of its accompanying jingle -- and so you know how tempting and important it is for you to have access to what the credit reporting agencies say about you. FreeCreditReport.com is operated by Experian.

Continue reading Experian and the Free Credit Report Conundrum.

Beating Bloody a 101-Year-Old Woman

By David W. Boles on March 11, 2007 10:56 AM | 46 Comments | 1 TrackBack

Are there some crimes that are so vicious and so tawdry and so incomprehensibly heinous that -- even though no one dies -- the punishment for the criminal must end in death? Yesterday, we were introduced to such a warranted death via video surveillance.

Continue reading Beating Bloody a 101-Year-Old Woman.

President Chuck Hagel

By David W. Boles on March 10, 2007 8:57 AM | 32 Comments

Yesterday I wrote an Urban Semiotic article called -- Abandoning Kitchen Door Values -- and after our fine discussion about how the decay of duty and the ravages of modern architecture have helped change community morality in the United States, I began to wonder back to Nebraska from New Jersey.

Continue reading President Chuck Hagel.

Abandoning Kitchen Door Values

By David W. Boles on March 9, 2007 9:41 AM | 20 Comments | 2 TrackBacks

In the Midwest -- especially in the prairie farmhouse -- the kitchen door of many homesteads provided direct entry into the back of the home. The kitchen was the central access core for sharing values and for meeting family and friends. Many times you'd just walk in through the unlocked door, call out your arrival and take a seat at the kitchen table. There was always a pot of coffee percolating on the stove and the smell of freshly baked goods wafted throughout the room from the cast-iron oven.

Continue reading Abandoning Kitchen Door Values.

Why Men Are Funnier Than Women

By David W. Boles on March 8, 2007 9:03 AM | 77 Comments

In a recent Vanity Fair article -- Why Women Aren't Funny -- author Christopher Hitchens explains why men are funnier than women: They had better be if they wish to survive. Hitchens evolutionarily argues men posses a genetic need to be funny in order to deal with their inadequacy in creating life. They cannot bear children, so they become jesters who are forced to entertain the Woman/God into opening up and allowing them consideration in fatherhood and the opportunity to deposit their humor for fertilization and propagation.

Continue reading Why Men Are Funnier Than Women.

The University Mafia: Roles and Analysis

By David W. Boles on March 7, 2007 9:48 AM | 26 Comments

In our conversation yesterday concerning -- Why Do You Hide Your Identity? -- we shared a great discussion about owning what you write online by using your Real Name.

Continue reading The University Mafia: Roles and Analysis.

Why Do You Hide Your Identity?

By David W. Boles on March 6, 2007 10:01 AM | 70 Comments | 10 TrackBacks

Do you use a fake name online?

Do you think by using a fake name you are protecting your privacy and hiding who you really are to the world?

Continue reading Why Do You Hide Your Identity?.

The First Betrayal: A Five Dollar Beating

By David W. Boles on March 5, 2007 7:42 AM | 20 Comments | 2 TrackBacks

We all know a life is worth six bucks, but as a child I found out the first betrayal is worth five dollars. There are some betrayals that are so base and so entirely intimate that one is seared forever in the sacred memory and by the sanctity of the moment.

1963 Five Spot

Continue reading The First Betrayal: A Five Dollar Beating.

Why Cat People are Better than Dog Folk

By David W. Boles on March 4, 2007 10:38 AM | 67 Comments

We love cats.

We love dogs.

We love all animals.

We do not, however, love all animal owners and in our direct experience and in our non-scientific research, we have come to the following conclusion: Cat People are better than Dog Folk and we'll tell you why.

Freedom Over Control
Cats love to roam while dogs hang around. Cats are active explorers; dogs merely accompany.

Cats are self-entertaining -- dogs need to perform for others to find self-satisfaction.

Independence Over Obedience
You do not tell cats what to do; you only make suggestions. Dogs live to be ordered around.

Cats choose owners that believe in liberty, freedom and The American Way and that means cats are self-providers: They can hunt down and kill their own dinner.

Dogs are bound to those who leash, command, and demand slobbering affection; dogs depend on the kindness of others to have their feed bowls filled twice-a-day.

Cats climb trees and fall from them without getting hurt. Dogs chase cats up trees so they can wonder at the example of "Falling, But Living" in the example of Nine Lives.

Pooping Over Eating Poo
Cats do not eat their own poo -- dogs do. Enough said.

Continue reading Why Cat People are Better than Dog Folk.

My Pussy is Angry!

By David W. Boles on March 3, 2007 10:13 AM | 26 Comments | 1 TrackBack

"My pussy is angry!" -- and with the shouting of that infamous phrase today -- every man in theatres across the country cringe in a nationally shared kick to the groin. Yes, it's that angry time of the year, again. V-Day. The Vagina Monologues Day. It's the season when all men are fair game for pounding as women proclaim their power from the stage -- under the guise of doing Good Deeds and charity -- while the men around them nod their heads in assumed agreement as their minds drift away.

Continue reading My Pussy is Angry!.

Commenter Regret: Why We Cannot Care

By David W. Boles on March 2, 2007 9:05 AM | 35 Comments | 2 TrackBacks

Urban Semiotic has been around in some form for over three years. We've been hosted here on WordPress.com since the end of October 2006 and we're loving it. There is, however, something we do not love -- and will never love -- when it comes to publishing this blog: Commenter Regret. That regret rears its selfish head when people ask -- hours, days, weeks, years later -- to have Comments they wrote here removed from public view.

Continue reading Commenter Regret: Why We Cannot Care.

President of the United States: Muslim or Native American?

By David W. Boles on March 1, 2007 9:21 AM | 38 Comments

In a recent article, The Bitch or The Black?!: The Politics of Division, we examined our national cultural prejudices in the light of settling new history in America: What would happen if we had the first Black president or the first female president?

Continue reading President of the United States: Muslim or Native American?.

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