"organ harvesting"

Boing Boing: China harvests Falun Gong organs, says Canada MP's report

argh...!

technorati tags:china

oh the serendipity... my new favorite site

UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

What are the chances... Dubai, again... I think maybe I should move there. I love this site. It just barely scratched the surface of it but I have to admit I'm hooked. I went there expecting a silly site, but what I found was so much more. I am being somewhat sarcastic but not really, there is something about it... I am confused by this site. I will explore it more fully and report back.

Perhaps it reminds me of some of the innocence of those first few years months days hours of the World Wide Web. When I felt the power and potential of self-published information.


Or maybe I just want to own an exceedingly rich, tiny country ;)

Us vs. Them

the experiment has little real-world applicability due to there being so many more variables involved in real conflicts - on the worldwide scale, for example.

Damn Interesting » Not Your Average Summer Camp

I have long held that the Human animal (more specifically, his delicate ego) requires a sense of seperation, and sense of boundary between my self and my environment. In a social context this very same algrythm extends from "me vs. my environment" to "us vs. the environment". And the heavy reliance on humans means that the most important factor in (nearly) any environment is the "other humans" in that environment. Hence, "us vs. them".

This study is an interesting illustration of that. I pulled out that specific line becuase it really irked me. What a pointlessly obvious thing to say about a scientific expirement. The commentor (critic) apparently missed the point about how the only way to model this sort of stuff in a full scale environment was to wait for it to happen in the real world. Which is (a) not financially or logistically feasible and (b) a little too late to be of any use.

technorati tags:psychology, social

The CraigsList Ad... HowTo ;-)

Everyone is giving advice these days so I might as well.

I complain a lot about selling things online but that is really out of fear that I might get some BOZO that thinks I am BestBuy and they can complain and return the merchandise.

This has never actually happened to me... therefore I must be an expert at this online sales stuff.

So here are my tips on avoiding BOZOs when selling online.

• Take an actual picture for the ad, a cell phone camera works great... but a stolen catalog picture is no good
• Write a description from your perspective. Don't just paste in the specs from the manufaturer's website.
• Don't assume that the buyer has the same familiarity with the product that you do. If a "superdrive" means that it burns DVDs then say "it burns DVDs"
  
• Explain WHY you are selling it. (optionally express a bit of honest regret)
  
• be personable, but clear and confident in your writing style. Not too polished and not to sketchy, this is the equivalent of a garage sale or a newspaper ad.
  
• don't say OBO... everything is an offer already! and inviting low-ball offers will just lead to frustration. Handle low-ball offers on an individual basis.
  

Above all, don't gouge... more specifically be reasonable. If you have realistic expectations about what something is worth, you have a much better chance of walking away having had a positive, (hopefully) mutually beneficial transaction.

In this case I paid $1350 + tax for the powerbook 7 months ago. I used it EVERY day since then. Do I really need to get $1200 for it!?!! Be fair and everybody wins. Plus it won't hurt your Karma any, or your Whuffie

</ rant >

technorati tags:whuffie, craigslist, sales

SOLD!!!!

well, my trusty PowerBook is SOLD...




So I post the ad and 2 pix to CraigsList and within a half an hour I get this:

Hello,

I saw your product on craigslist and i will like to know if you
still have it for sale and the working condition get back to me as
soon as you get this

Linda

followed closely by:

Hello,

I'm interested in your listed item and i will be paying you via MO or Check and i will also be responsible for the shipping expenses myself, pls reply me with your name and address for the payment .

Thanks

So I change the ad to say I don't want to ship it. I want to meet at a local coffee shop and they can pay me ca$h or PayPal.



Next I get a low ball:

Love that powerbook! I aint rich either so I have $700 that I can do today.
Please dont be insulted.. if you dont want to accept thats cool.

Thanks and have a good one.

which I think is tooo low, but I don't hate the 'playa' (but I do hate this game).

My response... I'll keep his info and get back to him if NOBODY wants the actually pay for the thing. To which he replies, offering me cash and a guitar. Which I consider for a surprisingly long 20 minutes.

Luckily I am saved by a REAL human, who recognizes that I have low-balled this thing to move quick and he simply says:

hi i will buy it if it checks out
i can meet you this evening
call me
917XXXXXX
my name is roy (fake name)

So I packed it up and headed for Starbucks...

an hour later... a few dollars in my pocket (at least until I send it off to AMEX ;) and a little weight off my shoulders. The gentleman who bought it was a decent guy and this whole experience (so far) has reminded me that the bark of selling things online is usually worse the the BITE!

this desk ain't big enough for the two of us

I did it again... I jumped in early, not unusual for me. Had to have the new INTEL powered macBook (or as I have seen it called "blackBook"... anyway this has to go!!!... I am doing my usual friend's network price which is a few duckets less than the eBay/Craiglist price...

I didn't really blog the "switcher" experience... but suffice to say, I switched!!! and I can't see going back too soon. As a matter of fact I "switched" without even fully switching. I was still heavily dependant on m$ entourage and dreamweaver (which I used as a text editor!!!, I'll blog about this seperately ;o)

so if you know anyone looking, put em in touch with me... I don't expect it to be hard to get rid of a slick 12 mac, in this neighborhood... but one never knows.

technorati tags:forsale, powerbook

Mad Max or Dubai?

Just How Fast in Dubai Growing?


Call me crazy, but I LOVE this image from Dubai circa 1991. Click thru for a comparison to a much more recent page. Talk about rapid growth!!!

technorati tags:dubai

don't believe what you see

Checker Shadow - Planet Perplex


"A" and "B" are identical and color, hue and brightness. This really blows me away. It is a great reminder that our minds aren't always "honest" with ut. Sometimes it tells us what it thinks we want to know.

technorati tags:truth, illusion, optical