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Showing posts from September, 2016

New product idea(s)

I was curious to see how in the marketing driven world I could improve on how much stuff is sold.  After all we are called consumers.  So how do I make sure we continue to add to the gross mass available for consumption.  One way is to have more of everything per capita.  More cars, shirts, computers, phones, ketchup bottles, kale salad, yoga pants etc. Another is to grow the size of the pie.  Marketers love this sort of BS.  Pie in this case refers to the available size of public willing to consume.  So I got to researching what exactly that looks like.  According to some yoda that crunch numbers for a living the earth produces approximately 19 new faces for every 1,000 of us each year.  During same time some of us farts disappear.  At the approx gross rate of 8 per 1,000. So net about 11 new dudes or dudettes or transitory entities show up for every 1,000 which equates to about 75M naya mukhdas.  Many many selfie takers, bookers and tweeters.  Ergo more phones. Hello! Now wh

Cookie 1.0 launch - all prominent appetites invited

After years of speculation on what and when I would launch my next generation product I have decided that it will be later today. If you are in a different time zone please mark your calendars or set your alarms because this reveal is going to be a show stopper.  I will explain as the show gets underway why. As in sharing with the WWW what I am about to do. The reveal is now underway as I type the remainder of this blog.  Too bad if you missed it.  I told you to set your timers earlier (in this blog). I am releasing a new cookie.  I called it 'Cook E 1' It is an amazingly round baked goodness of precisely 3.14 gm of walnuts and of chocolate proportioned to a size of 3.14 mm thick and a 31.4 mm diameter.   For those keeping score that is almost a 100 mm circumference of pure culinary magic in the mouth.  It has no holes or ports and has shelf life proportional to the cookie consuming proclivity of the shelf owner. The show is now going to stop because I just ate the

Schrodinger's cat

If you believe your head is not screwed on right, this movie may be for you.   No it is not called  'Schrodinger's cat' but is based on the paradox of that name.   Schrodinger was an Austrian who formulated this idea to describe the multiple states in which something can exist. The Austrian physicist posited that if a cat is enclosed in a box with a substance that might kill the cat then at any given time there are two (or more) states that simultaneously exist with respect to the cat.  It is both Dead and Alive at the same time and the actual outcome is confirmed by an observer who opens the box. The movie that explores this idea is called 'Coherence'. It is a sort of low budget, stage play set in a house (of the director) to handle a complex subject in this sci fi thriller.  Director portrays this concept, not unlike duality using a passing comet as the backdrop.  Movie has a cast of completely unfamiliar actors but the acting is very natural and engaging

Warning Labels

Anything and everything is dangerous.  In excess.  Or in case of cyanide even in extremely small doses. Consumer culture tends to even out the risk reward ratio of each item it consumes with or without labels. Yet in the litigious world we live in the makers and purveyors of all treats have to disclose or warn their consumer of the inherent flaw in their product(s). So with that in mind some special minds come up with nonsense that appears on packaging of the product - not the product itself  - Please drink responsibly (oxymoron) Smoking is injurious to health (whose) Plastic bags - this is not a toy (tell that to the kid) Plastic bags - choking hazard (is the parent drinking?) May cause drowsiness (so?) May generate feelings of suicide (just what the doc ordered) May lead to irregular heartbeat (what if it was beating like that before) Yet more people die from obesity related illnesses caused by variety of factors including diets containing saturated fats or sugars

Ad spend

Who doesn't like to make a quick buck?  Or even better many many bucks?  For a long time.  A very long time? Capitalism is founded on the very premise that buck making is good business.  In order to ensure a long and steady supply of bucks there is a tool marketers world over use called advertising. I have been involuntarily exposed to many ads for variety of products and services.  Over time the volume of ad spend has shifted.  In my observation today the most airtime or screen time or web presence is taken by the makers of the following - Cars (that you have to drive - never mind the mumbo jumbo of self driving kind) Mattresses Drugs for Erectile Dysfunction Credit Cards Drugs for Yeast Infections Drugs for Insomnia Drugs for heartburn Beer Dating Service What does the state of ad spend tell you about the health of our species? I see that all of the above are highly correlated to a promiscuous lifestyle that may or may not result in bankruptcy or vehicula

Noggin - book review

John Whaley is the author.  The book's premise as of its writing in 2014 constitutes sci fi.  Or is it?  Never know what the NSA is cooking.  But moving on to what mere mortals like us know, the idea that a dude whose body is dying of cancer has their head (which is functioning and healthy) chopped and frozen for few years in the hope of tying it to a healthy donor body in the future is a leap. Think chop shop auto body except for humans.  A virtual junkyard where our body parts are available for all models aka races, colors, sexual preferences.  Lose a pancrea?  Hop into the 'Parts R Us' next to the McDonald's on 4th street and get one before lunch.  You don't want to semi digest something now do you? The story revolves around a teenager who dies of cancer but just prior to this culminating event, the patient, his family and the doctor sign up for an experimental idea of cryo preserving his brain.  When five years later a healthy body (for a person that dies o

CrapX

Recent news about private sector investments (SpaceX et al) and expeditions in the exploration or visitation of space - that beyond earthly matter - got me thinking.  Uh Oh! I know.  It is far out - the thinking I mean.  I was chatting (postprandial) with a friend of mine who is from an Asian gene pool with a spouse who arose out of the Caucasian branch of the sapiens tree.  He is atheist and the wife Catholic. The subject started out about what makes an animal a pet - why I did not see as many people walking their rooster as say people walking dogs - for that matter I had also not seen a cat on a leash.  Strange I tell you.  This conversation somehow morphed into what one (pet owner) does after the said entity (pet) is deceased.  As in its remains.  He opined that said remains usually are cremated.  Some bury them in special cemeteries.  From there we moved on to our species and on inquiring I learned that his side of the family has chosen cremation while the spouse tends to lean