Urban Semiotic: April 2007 Archives

Pet Food that Kills Pets and Emotional Urbanization

By David W. Boles on April 30, 2007 10:27 AM | 12 Comments | 1 TrackBack

I have

been wanting to write about the massive -- in the hundreds of millions pounds -- recall of tainted pet food sold in America, but there hasn't been time for reflection and distance to help provide context and meaning of pet owners unwittingly killing their pets with food they purchase to keep them healthy.

I realize now is the moment to step forward in light of today's New York Times article -- explaining how it is a conflict of cultures, an acquiescence of values, and a shared economic drive between companies and countries to save as much money as possible -- that threatened our animals and killed our pets:

Continue reading Pet Food that Kills Pets and Emotional Urbanization.

Toast Guy Bitten by an Apple iPhone?

By David W. Boles on April 29, 2007 8:03 AM | 10 Comments

I woke up this morning to news from MacRumors that the first digital images taken with an Apple iPhone appear to have appeared on the web. The legend goes -- so far -- someone did a Google search on "taken with an Apple iPhone" and that search led them to a public Flickr account with these two images:

Continue reading Toast Guy Bitten by an Apple iPhone?.

Confessing Mortality: The Rusting Cast-Iron Stomach

By David W. Boles on April 28, 2007 11:25 AM | 59 Comments

As we grow older, our bodies fail us. The immortality of our youth is replaced by the recognition of decay and decline all around us. Where once we could see, we now need brighter lights and more magnification. Where once we could run, we now stumble down the block and shuffle up the stairs. Where once our recall was immediate, we now ponder a moment before replying.

Continue reading Confessing Mortality: The Rusting Cast-Iron Stomach.

Is the Confederate Flag a Racist Semiotic?

By David W. Boles on April 27, 2007 10:18 AM | 46 Comments

Last night's Democrat debate in Orangeburg, South Carolina revealed another weak stab against the Racism that still bleeds in the Deep South -- and in urban cores across America -- when Senator Barack Obama confirmed, when asked, that the Confederate Flag belonged in a museum and not flying above state buildings.

I ask you: Is the Confederate Flag a symbol of Racism in America, or is it merely a historical artifact that honors the struggle between being and bondage? This Confederate Battle Flag -- owned by Confederate General JEB Stuart -- recently sold at auction for $956,000.00 USD:

Continue reading Is the Confederate Flag a Racist Semiotic?.

The Affection Collector

By David W. Boles on April 26, 2007 10:26 AM | 59 Comments | 1 TrackBack

Have you ever met an Affection Collector and become a totem on their chain? Are you an Affection Collector? Those who collect affection without reciprocation are more dangerous and pernicious to the core of us than expressed Racism, misogyny and poverty.

Continue reading The Affection Collector.

Cocaine and Pimpjuice

By David W. Boles on April 25, 2007 10:20 AM | 63 Comments

Do you think advertising has the absolute power to absolutely corrupt? Are young minds more vulnerable to subtle and overt advertising genius than older thinkers -- or are we all enslaved by the temptation of our eyes and ears?

Continue reading Cocaine and Pimpjuice.

Methods of Execution: Death Row Racism and Gender Bias

By David W. Boles on April 24, 2007 8:09 AM | 22 Comments | 3 TrackBacks

Are you in favor of Capital Punishment?

If you do support state-sponsored killing, do you prefer hanging, firing squad, lethal injection or death by electric chair?

Is the current method of execution in America Racist and muddled in gender biased while being based on misinterpreted Laws of Moses using "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" as a rationale for killing?

There is a rather gruesome conversation going on in the state of Nebraska right now concerning their use of the electric chair as the sole method of capital punishment.

The argument isn't over the issue of using the chair or not or if killing people is right or not.

The discussion concerns just how much electricity it takes to "humanely" kill someone:

Continue reading Methods of Execution: Death Row Racism and Gender Bias.

Google Web History Knows Your Wants

By David W. Boles on April 23, 2007 7:36 AM | 12 Comments

We all know Google knows everything about us.

How do you feel about that fact?

If you are logged into your Google account, do you know you can have Google show you a Web History of all your Google searches?

It's a little creepy. It tells you a lot. Google Web History is a newish feature that isn't getting a lot of play yet.

Continue reading Google Web History Knows Your Wants.

Do You Celebrate Earth Day?

By David W. Boles on April 22, 2007 11:58 AM | 25 Comments

Today is Earth Day! How do you celebrate? Is the earth better off today than it was when the first Earth Day was proclaimed in 1970 -- have we made progress together in helping cure the earth or have we only made things worse? Here's the official word from the administration concerning Earth Day's federal "Environmental Highlights:"

Continue reading Do You Celebrate Earth Day?.

Semiotic Scathing of Guns in America

By David W. Boles on April 21, 2007 12:42 PM | 16 Comments

Public Opinion is formed in America in the disparate experiences of the masses that the major media then forms and congeals into an entity that can be measured and exploited via advertising. The Editorial Cartoon, however, has always found its most purposeful purchase just outside that mainstream media venom line to pock and poke fun of falsely considered mainstream media values with sticks of truth and the bones of what is real.

Continue reading Semiotic Scathing of Guns in America.

Does a Woman Own Her Body?

By David W. Boles on April 20, 2007 8:34 AM | 26 Comments | 1 TrackBack

The Supreme Court ruling this week outlawing partial-birth abortions was overshadowed by murders in Virginia -- but the decision is a watershed moment in America: Do Women Own Their Bodies or Not? If women do own their bodies -- and the decisions made therein -- how do you reconcile the partial-birth abortion ban that does not take into consideration the health of the mother?

Continue reading Does a Woman Own Her Body?.

A Pornographic Hectoring from the Grave

By David W. Boles on April 19, 2007 9:03 AM | 40 Comments | 2 TrackBacks

NBC News' Brian Williams breathlessly resurrected a killer before our eyes last night in the visceral perversion of airing the pornographic rantings of a madman -- under the guise of news and beneath the veil of human contempt -- thus guaranteeing a shooter's immortality while completely burying the names and the accomplishments of the real and undeserved dead.

Continue reading A Pornographic Hectoring from the Grave.

RFID and Implanted Behavior Control

By David W. Boles on April 18, 2007 7:26 AM | 30 Comments | 1 TrackBack

I cannot get over the notion of RFID staples -- even if the whole thing is a hoax -- and the idea you can track paper and people via such a tiny piece of steel. Can you imagine all the uses of RFID staples if you assume there are proper monitoring stations that can read the tiny transmitters?

Continue reading RFID and Implanted Behavior Control.

Tombstones Replacing Diplomas: A Deadeye Massacre at Virginia Tech

By David W. Boles on April 17, 2007 7:10 AM | 66 Comments | 3 TrackBacks

The assassination of 33 students at Virginia Tech yesterday -- creating the bloodiest massacre among 25,000 students across 2,600 campus acres in the modern history of the United States -- begs the relationship between revenge, access to guns, and the rightful expression of fury in a civilized society.

Continue reading Tombstones Replacing Diplomas: A Deadeye Massacre at Virginia Tech.

Paying the Man

By David W. Boles on April 16, 2007 8:15 AM | 18 Comments

Yesterday was Drop Dead Day

for paying your taxes in America, but taxes are a worldwide phenomenon that cannot be resisted or denied if you are an active participant in society.

I'm always amazed by the people who purposefully overpay during the year and use the IRS as a savings account and then "get surprised" when they get a big refund each year. How did you do this year?

Did you pay in or get back?

Do you know people who refuse to file taxes?

Do you pay any state tax?

Do you pay a local or city tax?

Do you feel you're getting value out what you pay in?

If yes, why? If not, why not?

Continue reading Paying the Man.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson

By David W. Boles on April 15, 2007 12:03 PM | 13 Comments

Today is the 60th anniversary when Jack Roosevelt Robinson -- Jackie Robinson -- became the first Black player to take the field in a Major League Baseball uniform. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Few know that in 1941 Jackie Robinson was the first athlete in the history of UCLA -- of any color -- to letter in four sports: Baseball, Football, Basketball and Track. There are perils when you are a pioneer and a barrier-breaker and -- in the light of our Don Imus Conversations -- we cannot deny how the past haunts us with a similar hatred that still chases us today as witnessed in this letter sent to Jackie Robinson on May 20, 1951:

Continue reading Jack Roosevelt Robinson.

A Semiotic Imus Wiping

By David W. Boles on April 14, 2007 1:21 PM | 24 Comments | 3 TrackBacks

I thought we were finished wiping up after Don Imus this week, but the ongoing reverberations in the media and in our comments for all our coverage are still too strong to ignore -- Don Imus and the Rutgers Nappy Headed Hos and Race and the American Humor Line and The Lesson of Don Imus: Red is Thicker than Green and Creating Consequential Context: A Semiotic Moral Correction for Don Imus -- and while some of our regular commenters have fallen off into the darkness, their voices have been replaced with new commenters offering counter-advocacy and fascinating arguments.

Continue reading A Semiotic Imus Wiping.

Creating Consequential Context: A Semiotic Moral Correction for Don Imus

By David W. Boles on April 13, 2007 8:11 AM | 38 Comments | 1 TrackBack

As we wrap up our necessary Don Imus coverage this week -- Don Imus and the Rutgers Nappy Headed Hos and Race and the American Humor Line and The Lesson of Don Imus: Red is Thicker than Green -- we turn the page by taking a scholarly, semiotic, examination of The Imus Incident and its created Consequential Context expressed in national editorial cartoons.

Continue reading Creating Consequential Context: A Semiotic Moral Correction for Don Imus.

The Lesson of Don Imus: Red is Thicker than Green

By David W. Boles on April 12, 2007 8:04 AM | 25 Comments | 1 TrackBack

In examining

the Don Imus controversy over the last few days here in our Don Imus and the Rutgers Nappy Headed Hos and Race and the American Humor Line articles -- I now realize when one ponders on the core purpose of this Urban Semiotic blog -- one cannot escape the hard reality that an "Urban Semiotic" has most powerfully come to mean in this blog the matter of Black skin and its place in The American Dream.

Time and again many of our most poignant and powerful articles published here have addressed Racial issues in America -- and that necessary, and sometimes uncomfortable dialog -- has been examined and perpetuated in conversations here that are as invigorating as they are enlightening and, for that, I thank you.

If you have a favorite Urban Semiotic article that deals with Race and The Color Line, I would appreciate it if you would provide the title and a link in your comments -- along with your reason for picking the article(s) -- so we can create a new thread of understanding, a new way forward, and a context for the history and the now that we have tried to covet and change when it comes to getting along with each other beneath the barriers of our skin.

Continue reading The Lesson of Don Imus: Red is Thicker than Green.

Men Throwing Women in Swimming Pools

By David W. Boles on April 11, 2007 9:37 AM | 22 Comments | 1 TrackBack

If you are a Real Man you have -- at least once in your life -- wanted to, wondered on, or actually pushed a woman into a swimming pool. Any man who denies this urge exists is lying. Civilized men the world over fight, but always give in to, this undeniable desire to get their women wet -- and no one can ever begin to explain the why of this unfortunate phenomenon -- and I admit the woman below is giving me fits because she's already halfway in the pool and just a nudge from my foot...

Continue reading Men Throwing Women in Swimming Pools.

Race and the American Humor Line

By David W. Boles on April 10, 2007 8:05 AM | 22 Comments | 1 TrackBack

Yesterday's post on Don Imus and the Rutgers Nappy Headed Hos has sparked a secondary discussion in our moderated comments area that -- because of bad language and cruel intent -- cannot be published here. The topic those horrible comments are trying to enlighten -- Where is the Humor Line Drawn When it Comes To Race in America? -- deserves wider, but calmer, critical attention. I love editorial cartoons and this is how some of them are framing the Imus issue this morning. Sometimes a public correction is felt deepest in the bones under the guise of humor:

Continue reading Race and the American Humor Line.

Don Imus and the Rutgers Nappy Headed Hos

By David W. Boles on April 9, 2007 9:01 AM | 57 Comments | 6 TrackBacks

The Rev. Al Sharpton wants Don Imus fired for Racist remarks Imus made on-the-air last week about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.

I agree with Al Sharpton even though I have written positively about Imus here in the past.

Sometimes there are things spoken that are so inconsiderate and so hurtful that no apology and no excuse can ever erase the psychological and physical damage done.

Imus, and his show Imus in the Morning, allegedly have a well-documented history of Racism and intolerance and he needs to immediately and permanently leave the airwaves:

Continue reading Don Imus and the Rutgers Nappy Headed Hos.

Which Came First: The Jesus or The Egg?

By David W. Boles on April 8, 2007 10:50 AM | 24 Comments

We know there is a Naked Chocolate Jesus hanging around, in situ, waiting to be eaten or melted. While his future hangs in the balance, I was led to wonder on a twist to the age old conundrum. Which came first, The Jesus or The Egg?

What do you think? Did chocolate Easter Eggs come first, or did Jesus in Chocolate come first?

The Five Thousand Dollar Barrier

By David W. Boles on April 7, 2007 10:47 AM | 14 Comments

For the last decade I have noticed one sad and confounding fact -- every new computer I want over all those years always costs $5,000.00 USD -- and I want to know why! It's true that when I buy a new computer I want the best one packed with all the best stuff.

My philosophy of buying is to buy the biggest and the best available you can afford because it might be awhile before you can buy another one. I've been fortunate that I can regularly buy lots of computers every year, but I am still confounded that each one -- year in and year out -- costs five grand!

Sure there are cheap-o computers and ridiculously expensive computers, but the one that is the best and the most tantalizing has never risen or lowered in price. The magic price is, and seems shall always be, -- $5,000 -- and I still want to know why!

A Meme of Craven Semiotics: My Lovely Lady Lumps

By David W. Boles on April 6, 2007 8:36 AM | 62 Comments | 2 TrackBacks

After yesterday's blistering of Keith Richards' cocaine/ashes habit here in Urban Semiotic, our conversation turned to the need for, and the requirement of, semiotics in society and I made this promise then:

We are going to talk more about the corruption of the young around us with craven semiotics that are imitated and intended to infiltrate and infest mainstream popular culture to influence behavior, values and the common decency of human morality.

Continue reading A Meme of Craven Semiotics: My Lovely Lady Lumps.

Up Your Nose With Your Father's Toes

By David W. Boles on April 5, 2007 8:17 AM | 23 Comments | 1 TrackBack

What is the nature of celebrity in society? Is it to enlighten? Darken? Distract? Dim? Is any morality owed to the sycophants who adore celebrity? How do we explain and frame Keith Richards' recent admission he snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine and then his quick recantation of that confession?

Continue reading Up Your Nose With Your Father's Toes.

One Voice One Blog One Reader

By David W. Boles on April 4, 2007 8:20 AM | 38 Comments

Do you own blog? If yes, why? How often do you post new material to your blog? Do you go beyond yourself in your blog posts or do you just document the moments of your day? Do you read other blogs? If yes, how many do you read every day?

Continue reading One Voice One Blog One Reader.

Boles Books GIS and Glencoe McGraw-Hill

By David W. Boles on April 3, 2007 10:52 AM | 12 Comments

After a hard-nosed -- but always friendly -- negotiation, we are pleased to announce the small involvement of Boles Books Writing & Publishing ™ in providing some GIS (Geographic Information Systems) material from our ongoing Dramatic Medicine project concerning GIS in Public Health to Glencoe/McGraw-Hill publishing in a three book textbook deal.

Continue reading Boles Books GIS and Glencoe McGraw-Hill.

What to Do With a Naked Chocolate Jesus?

By David W. Boles on April 2, 2007 10:17 AM | 36 Comments | 4 TrackBacks

It was announced last Friday the Naked Chocolate Jesus art exhibit was cancelled due to protests from the Catholic Church. I was surprised at the church's revulsion with Jesus in any art form. You can already buy chocolate Marys and Jesuses online.

Continue reading What to Do With a Naked Chocolate Jesus?.

The Goddamned American

By Kathakali Chatterjee on April 1, 2007 2:25 PM | 21 Comments

Kathakali Chatterjee wrote this article.

How many times you have answered the following questionnaire while completing a regular survey in your lifetime without even thinking much about it?

Continue reading The Goddamned American.

The Blushing Fool: Is Embarrassment Good For You?

By David W. Boles on April 1, 2007 9:39 AM | 31 Comments | 1 TrackBack

Today is the day I hate even more than Pirate Speaking Day -- April Fool's Day -- where everyone gets to hurt someone else's feelings on purpose and by design and then just laugh it off later. We previously discussed the cruel phenomenon of this day in Schadenfraude and The April Fool -- and in thinking what to say this year concerning this awful topic, I became bemused by an email from Duke University claiming research demonstrating embarrassment is actually good for us:

Continue reading The Blushing Fool: Is Embarrassment Good For You?.

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