Over at Yahoo Answers there are people that have the need to ask questions such as

Will an adult otter eat 10 week old kittens.?

It’s not someone looking for a cheap, but adorable,way to feed otters but the replies are great. So if the idea of kitten consumption offends I’d steer clear of this.

I love it when companies that create a problem  take corrective action against their best customers. actually make that their customers period.  This is the mentality that decides the easiest solution to a health problem that disproportionately affects  a segment of the population has to be  inflicted on the general population that don’t have the same predisposition. 

A real case of the cure being worse than the disease. 

Such a case is Ebay’s recent decision to remove the ability for sellers to rate buyers.Couple this  with a new fee schedule that is  argued by Ebay to mean a reduction of charges for “most” people which seems counter to my experience.  If they mean per 1000 items listed it’s cheaper for mass sellers there’s a case for that.  For the  occasional seller  all I see are increases

It’s an election year after all and   I think they’ve been nicking plays from the politician’s play book.  Reducing an insertion fee by 5c while adding on the

From the Auction Bytes blog.

If
you list 100 items with a starting and ending price of $9 with a 50
percent sell-through rate (50 items out of 100 actually sell), it would
cost you a total of $63.63 in fees under the old structure and a total
of $74.38 under the new structure. This is a fee increase of 17 percent.This
is based on the old insertion fee of 40 cents plus commission fee of
5.25%, and the new insertion fee of 35 cents plus 8.75% FVF. If
you list 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sell 50 percent of
them at a selling price of $35, you would have paid $121.75 in total
fees under the old pricing structure. Under the new pricing, you would
pay $162. That is a 33 percent fee increase.

Which is in most of the cases for my personal use  + paypal fees =  usuary?    I really liked Ebay and  apart from rare items now  I’ve abandoned it. Two reasons.  One  the curse of “perfect information”  There’s just too many people using it with an appreciation for the value of items that  there’s little deviation in the  price of gear.   Secondly I’m   painfully aware that additional fees  are passed straight on to me.  It’s bad for me on both counts. 

 I found the presence of  neg feedback generated by a seller VERY instructive  with regards to demeanor and professionalism of the seller .e.g  “loser didn’t read ad properly  , get a life”     killed my  desire  straight away to deal with them.   Mistakes happen,  it’s the only way you see  where customer service promises transform into action.

 No longer  having that insight is a disservice to buyers as well as sellers and   I swear I  looked up Ebay’s new management to see if they’d used a “buy it now” option to bring in  Fema’s ex director. Yer doing a hell of a job Ebay.

eBay’s new feedback policy: no real feedback

I love it when companies that create a problem  take corrective action against their best customers. actually make that their customers period.  This is the mentality that decides the easiest solution to a health problem that disproportionately affects  a segment of the population has to be  inflicted on the general population that don’t have the same predisposition. 

A real case of the cure being worse than the disease. 

Such a case is Ebay’s recent decision to remove the ability for sellers to rate buyers.Couple this  with a new fee schedule that is  argued by Ebay to mean a reduction of charges for “most” people which seems counter to my experience.  If they mean per 1000 items listed it’s cheaper for mass sellers there’s a case for that.  For the  occasional seller  all I see are increases

It’s an election year after all and   I think they’ve been nicking plays from the politician’s play book.  Reducing an insertion fee by 5c while adding on the

From the Auction Bytes blog.

If
you list 100 items with a starting and ending price of $9 with a 50
percent sell-through rate (50 items out of 100 actually sell), it would
cost you a total of $63.63 in fees under the old structure and a total
of $74.38 under the new structure. This is a fee increase of 17 percent.This
is based on the old insertion fee of 40 cents plus commission fee of
5.25%, and the new insertion fee of 35 cents plus 8.75% FVF. If
you list 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sell 50 percent of
them at a selling price of $35, you would have paid $121.75 in total
fees under the old pricing structure. Under the new pricing, you would
pay $162. That is a 33 percent fee increase.

Which is in most of the cases for my personal use  + paypal fees =  usuary?    I really liked Ebay and  apart from rare items now  I’ve abandoned it. Two reasons.  One  the curse of “perfect information”  There’s just too many people using it with an appreciation for the value of items that  there’s little deviation in the  price of gear.   Secondly I’m   painfully aware that additional fees  are passed straight on to me.  It’s bad for me on both counts. 

 I found the presence of  neg feedback generated by a seller VERY instructive  with regards to demeanor and professionalism of the seller .e.g  “loser didn’t read ad properly  , get a life”     killed my  desire  straight away to deal with them.   Mistakes happen,  it’s the only way you see  where customer service promises transform into action.

 No longer  having that insight is a disservice to buyers as well as sellers and   I swear I  looked up Ebay’s new management to see if they’d used a “buy it now” option to bring in  Fema’s ex director. Yer doing a hell of a job Ebay.

eBay’s new feedback policy: no real feedback

This was a long weekend due to  MLK day.   I’d love to  pick up that hot potato but frankly you can pick your own version of the man. I’m just convinced that we should not be so happy as to call this equality by any stretch of the imagination.    This country is so far away from  treating people by the content of their character but instead attempts to treat them based on atavistic ass hattery, having the right combination of chromosomes , which invisible friend they have and a myriad of seemingly hardwired behaviors  that have people acting as  a walk on part in their own life.  ( Notice we often talk about the lessons we need to learn? )

Here’s a view that may seem over simplistic but seems to fit most of my experiences with groups .Welcome to the monkey sphere.

Onto something happy.   Today was a matinée  ice hockey game.   Dobh was in attendance and was  being wickedly cute, and  while a bit difficult he took a three hour trip pretty well. He howls  along to each score for the home team. He had a lot of opportunity today:)    This is the first time in  over a decade  I’ve made a point of watching a sport that wasn’t a national event such as Wimbledon or the Super bowl. The fan attire fits me nicely, there’s a level of skill immediately apparent that I can’t discern in baseball and I don’t even want to get into professional  football. I live in Phoenix for fucks sake ;)   Even though I never had a sporting background. I still had to play  rugby, soccer and hockey at school , I lived in the country with one non driving parent. It wasn’t that big a deal we could only afford one car.( you tell the kid’s that today and they won’t believe you </python>
 so it wasn’t really an option. 

Next post:
Boy do the American’s know how to put on a show,
 

Phoenix Coyotes - The Official Web Site

I’m wondering if any guide to influencing people is effective if they’ve already gained many years experience of you. I’m wondering if you start pushing their influence and compliance buttons how well they spot it? Do we really have to play the game of crafting onion requests to have people agree to the what looks like a concession but hey, that’s what we wanted you to think anyway. Maybe that’s why APS keep asking for insane increases to make us all happy when instead of screwing us they use lube first.

So here I am reading in parallel Tom Robbins Still Life with the  woodpecker( 5th time round, a book on influence the psychology of persuasion by Robert Cialdini , a book on how organizations are inherently evil,Calculated  chaos by Butler Shaffer and have just finished The invisibles book, kissing Mr Quimper, by Grant Morrison. Is it any I wonder how I can’t finish a sentence around people without trailing off?

It’s hard to rein in new applications of information in the short term which sadly is about the only timespan most American’s work on. They miss the here and now because they are so fucking anxious for it to arrive that they miss it going by. ADD makes perfect sense here I think Rushkoff’s take on this being an adaptive strategy to the messages hitting you daily is closer to the truth than would be convenient for those making a living from the effects of it.

Ok since this is a dump post.

People that haven’t read Violent Acres are missing out.

Penn Jillette has started vlogging over at Cracker.com rather than link directly check out the header on the referring blog is worthy of your consideration.

And this defense of liberty by yeah I say this for humor value “Canadian” since freedom to me isn’t border related but cultural. Via Ernunnos but then every damn blog I read the day after;) This would have been awesome had it been a scripted show. That it’s reality , Alberta a Canadian one ,made my Sunday. We’re talking about beating out Summer Glau kicking ass in the Sarah Connor chronicles too. I’m watching hockey, getting intellectual stimulation from Canadians, other than Bear Naked Ladies ,and listening to a CBC series called how to think about science. I’m stuck in the land of the hot dog between a rock hard tortilla and a Tim Horton’s place.

That these items are considered dangerous is a sad indictment of the USA. I grew up on a farm.with guns, chainsaws, poison, tractors and animals that can take out a five year old, That’s before you consider  Scottish winters and food. :)  Anyway it’s entertaining and hopefully it inspires a family to build a potato gun this weekend:)

Greetings.

Happy new year, at least one of  the many calenders that are out there. I prefer the dragons and fireworks
myself to  the irony of the “timeless”  Dick Clark looking like didn’t go down
to Georgia, but over to Switzerland instead and lost a watch building contest
with “Old Harry”, but I digress. Let’s start out 2008 with a positive message. 

I am positive that elections are a great excuse to get more people blog, vlog
, ne demagogue  this upcoming  election with a torrent of user generated content
seeded by MSM sources ( Oh dear I’ve gone negative early… )

 This is one of those tales I love.   Most people here don’t believe me when I said that the UK was so hostile to car drivers that just being able to find somewhere to drive it and park was a chore.  Pay the toll to get over the bridge, pay the toll to get into the city, pay to park   etc.  Now it looks like McDonald’s in the UK have decided that it’s in their interests to send $150 fines to people who have the gall(  they probably have that minced up in their  happymeal ) to eat their and pay for the meal.  The UK people don’t seem to be  ba da da da daaaa loving it.  So that’s funny.  What’s funnier and I have this debate  quite a lot is that just because you hire a third person to be a dick on your behalf doesn’t make you  less  culpable just highlights how  crass you are.  Hey  customers we’ve paid a company to shit in your food but since we don’t profit from it, swallow ok?      See how it goes.   Eat lunch one day,  get fined,  refuse to pay get a larger fine, then  they take you by force and it all goes pear shaped.   If you need to commit a crime in the UK  mug someone . You’ll get less of a fine, some assistance with education, rented accommodation and some money  .. just don’t park while beating the shit out of the pensioner. 

McParking row as slow eaters given heavy fines | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

McDonald’s in effect washed its hands of the charge, saying it had been imposed by Civil Enforcement and the burger giant did not profit from it.

Oddly enough this is my first submission to a site and I know there’s a better caption there but I am not able to reach it presently.

moar funny pictures

I am kind lucky that I fell through the idea that libertarianism , as practiced by most of the people I’ve met here is going to advance us anywhere, soon, ever.

Now I can’t make such an unsupported statement ( ok I can but.. ) Stefan Molyneux , another great reason to embrace new media, takes a look at the demands that libertarians make from the rest of the world and what they will offer the rest of the world in return. It’s quite enlightening. While many of his techniques if followed through to their logical conclusion will save you a fortune on xmas cards ,being that you will have no friends left, they are rather interesting. So if you think that another person can give you freedom then you may as well vote for , well anyone really it doesn’t matter. Now I’m off to read
Freedomain Radio - Videos

Dobhran, aka “pork chop” , “dosbin”, “Dobie” and on special occasions little lord farfanoogan  will be having a nicely manufactured Christmas this year.  Many licenced, plastic and on the whole  worth their weight in lead toys are awaiting his rapt and often violent attention.  Next year though? Erin’s been out in the woodshop between hobbling ( it’s like PT for her bunghole, er leg ) between a new play cube and my delightful ( so far)  bike  which has gotten us talking about making more of Dobhran’s toys.   I found this jet on my  web travels and have to say I’m impressed by it, though not the price of the plans. I think I want to build the wee one some form of gentle motion simulator but he’s really into bikes and cars. How the hell we make him a mini “hang on” that he won’t fall off is another matter..  maybe I’ll stick to cars for the time being.

Build the AQUAPLANE kids backyard fun ride!

Other than a full endorsement to go see this movie I seriously suggest you don’t read any  reviews until doing so but  if  you must you may as well start here.  It’s  the palate cleanser one needed after Grendel’s outing and the people leaving “No Country…”  well let’s just say the ending is exactly the type I enjoy , ergo most hate for reasons I’m not going to get into this week.

FlickFilosopher.com: No Country for Old Men (review)

Here’s the thing about Joel and Ethan Coen: they can make anything, absolutely anything, intensely profound and deeply weird — and weirdly deep — and cruelly magnificent all at the same time.

Additionally I have swapped rides from cruiser to sports tourer.   I’ve gone retro with a 96 Kwak GPZ1100 which I have to say is  at 3.5 on my scale of five for motorcycle speed

fast
really fast
eep inducingly fast
brown trousers time fast
Insanely fast  ( a la sausage creature)

On the way  home I had two cop cars tailing me.  I think I passed that truck just a tad too fast,   after they saw that I spotted, slowed and  drove saintly for a couple of miles they went on their merry way.  

 So good bike, good movie and a pretty good meal.

Ah another Thanksgiving were once again the question from the natives here of how other countries celebrate it arose.The bemusement that follows the idea that the whole world doesn’t revolve around the American myth of thanksgiving is kinda touching for a bunch of people that have better degrees than mine.

You know what,  we don’t celebrate President’s day either. Shocking eh?  ( No, I am not a Canadian)
 
The radio news , tv news and print news are full of state agencies using your money to tell you how to cook, how to drive, how to pack and how to put up with all kinds of intrusive behavior so you can  have “fun” 
 
 

Written in less time than it took  Marillion’s  Grendel to play.. about 17 minutes.

Two movies with heavy CGI that I’ve been “forced” to watch at the behest of ,what’s occasionally referred to as my better half  contained Lara Crotch, I mean Angelina Jolie and both left me annoyed.  I could have watched  “no country for old men” but no ,  3d or not 3d that was the offer.  Wrong Joel E (than)  sadly. Apart from that monstrous pun  let’s ready to diss this Dane.

Grendel… supper’s ready. *

Technically I liked it, best dragon yet,  though there’s a tendency towards too many “oo loook pointy” moments.Drawing attention to the 3D detracts from the movie,if you have to remind me it’s in 3d then somethings gone wrong in the story department. Oh and if we’re really going to innovate  drop the suspense shots that telegraph what’s going to happen. geez, just add a fucking double take for the character’s as Grendel bursts into Heorot.

In short the first half can be summed up as Happpy, drinky ,maudlin , screamy , Shouty, schemy, lusty, sleepy , fighty,  repeat.  Intersperse with a rapper’s vocab on how cool you are,  and that you are indeed Beowulf.  Usual look into man’s failings, who is  really a monster are present , but it’s like watching a video game cut scene that you’d be  pressing triangle furiously on to skip the dialog and get to the kick ass dragon ending.

Keeping on the  theme  Beauty and the beast here’s a couple of reviews that  may help.

From the  Flick Filosopher

:: rogerebert.com :: Reviews (xhtml)

*I had four cars named Grendel. My road home was along country lanes and the numbers of rabbits mowed down by my earth rim walker ( mostly accidentally )  led to the name.