So I obviously need to catch up on my Oprah, because she has recently gone ape-shit over this self help book/movie called “The Secret” and although I admit I haven’t seen or read the entire book, I have see enough of it via YouTube to realize it’s a bag of butts.

As Skeptico explains, “The Secret” is what they call the Law Of Attraction – the idea that you become or attract what you think about the most. They explain it as:

“Thoughts become things.”

This is presented as a literal truth – a law just like the laws of gravitation. And it is stated that this:

“Always works every time”

Note: always. And every time. No exceptions. It’s a Law, you see.

Examples are given. A man is shown worrying about being late, and so he gets stuck in a traffic jam. Another man is shown locking up his bicycle, presumably because he is worried about it being stolen; he returns later to find it has been stolen. The absurdity of these examples should be obvious. Are we supposed to believe the traffic jam wouldn’t have happened if it were not for this one guy worrying about being late? And what about the other people in the traffic jam? Were they all thinking negative thoughts about being late? Were there no positive-minded people in the area, thinking about being on time? And if there were, doesn’t that debunk the “always works every time” mantra? And what about the guy getting his bike stolen? Are we to assume that if another guy had left an identical unlocked bike at the same location, the bike thief would still have stolen the locked bike of the person worried about theft? Has anyone done a controlled study on this? (Hey, these were the examples used in the film – don’t blame me if they make no sense.)

Of course, the basic flaw in all this is that the Law Of Attraction is not a Law like the Law Of Gravitation that they compare it to. Newton’s Law’s can be demonstrated by anyone – drop an object and its acceleration will be exactly as the Law predicts. And this really does “always work every time” – that’s why it’s a Law. The “Law Of Attraction” as they call it just doesn’t work that way. Although having a positive attitude, being confident, believing in your own success etc is a definite advantage, and should be encouraged, having positive thoughts will not send out magic brainwave frequencies that change reality around you. This brainwave “magnetic signature” as one person called it, never goes out, any time. Not in the real world.

Thanks to skeptico - Great site!

The University of Nebraska is so pissed off with the RIAA’s outrageous requests to help rat out students who file-share that it has sent the RIAA a bill for the time the University has wasted dealing with the RIAA’s demands. Go Corn Huskers!

Meanwhile, the University of Nebraska has told the RIAA that it can’t help them identify many of the students accused of file trading. The school’s system changes a computer’s IP address each time its turned on, and it only keeps this information for month. After that month, the school has no way of associating an IP address with a computer or its user. The RIAA is angry about this, and a spokesman for the group criticized the university for not understanding “the need to retain these records”. This is a ridiculous complaint. The university doesn’t have a need to retain these records, and there’s no reason it should do so out of some obligation to the RIAA. If there were any doubt that the university is really irritated by the RIAA’s requests, it has requested that the RIAA pay the university to reimburse its expenses from dealing with this (good luck with that).

Recent rock and roll hall of fame inductee Patti Smith talks about the struggles of accepting the award and tell people to quit crying about the loss of CBGB’s.

Should an artist working within the revolutionary landscape of rock accept laurels from an institution? Should laurels be offered? Am I a worthy recipient?

I have wrestled with these questions and my conscience leads me back to Fred and those like him — the maverick souls who may never be afforded such honors. Thus in his name I will accept with gratitude. Fred Sonic Smith was of the people, and I am none but him: one who has loved rock ’n’ roll and crawled from the ranks to the stage, to salute history and plant seeds for the erratic magic landscape of the new guard.

Because its members will be the guardians of our cultural voice. The Internet is their CBGB. Their territory is global. They will dictate how they want to create and disseminate their work. They will, in time, make breathless changes in our political process. They have the technology to unite and create a new party, to be vigilant in their choice of candidates, unfettered by corporate pressure. Their potential power to form and reform is unprecedented.

Human history abounds with idealistic movements that rise, then fall in disarray. The children of light. The journey to the East. The summer of love. The season of grunge. But just as we seem to repeat our follies, we also abide.

I just purchased a new camera after looking at a co-workers shots she had taken. the camera was a camera called the Holga. The Holga is a very inexpensive, medium format box camera appreciated for its low-fidelity aesthetic. The Holga originated in Hong Kong in 1982, and used 120 film, the most widely available film in China at that time. The camera was originally intended to provide an inexpensive mass-market camera for working-class Chinese in order to record family portraits and events. The Holga’s cheap construction, combined with poor quality materials and simple plastic lens often yields pictures that display vignetting, blur, light leaks, and other distortions. The often bizarre photographic results of these effects have ironically popularized the camera with an international audience, and Holga photos have won numerous awards and competitions in art and news photography.

You will typically shoot 12-14 shots on a roll of film, of which maybe 8 will turn out and 3-4 of those will be keepers. However, they will be cool enough to make you want to keep shooting. And the more you use the camera, the more you get to know its “personality” and can get even better shots. Here are my photos, and links to other groups of Holga users. If youre interested in purchasing one, here is where I got mine.

Click Here For More »

Stories about a strange road where the wagon would run up on the horses heels when going uphill go back to the 1880’s. In 1933 stories of cars rolling uphill without power peaked the curiosity of three newspaper reporters from the Saint John Telegraph Journal. In August of 1933 they traveled to Moncton and spent hours trying every hill they came to in hopes of unraveling the mystery. After 5 hours of no success they stopped to stretch their legs on the way home and you guessed it. . . the car started to roll uphill. Slowly at first and then with gathering momentum the car climbed uphill without power. They spent a couple of hours retrying the hill and using all the equipment they had brought to discover the secret. They noticed the water on the side of the road also running uphill. That ruled out magnetic properties. They decided it must be an optical illusion, but how and why they didn’t know.

Shortly after they published their article, people started to come out in droves to the site and test it for themselves. A young local girl had started a business at the top of the road selling ice cream. She soon saw the potential of Magnetic Hill and over the course of 20 years, Muriel Lutes began to develop it to become a major tourist attraction.

Magnetic Hill has been a top attraction in New Brunswick for over 100 years. Originally part of a provincial highway, Magnetic Hill was eventually sold to the City of Moncton and preserved as a tourist attraction while a bypass highway was built around it. Magnetic Hill Park won a Top Attraction award with Attractions Canada in 2002.

Here is a link to a video showing the actual hill.

And here is how it works:

We’ve had a wonderfull week of spring like weather. Unfortunately, we Michiganders realize this is just natures cruel trick as she will most likely dump us with one more batch of snow before truely changing over to spring.

Nonetheless, I’ve had the barbecue fired up almost every night and my thoughts are wandering to the new set of BBQ utensils I need, and surveying the backyard for the various updates this year. I found this great site with discount home and garden supplies.

I think the wife wants to install fountains and ponds, but I’m opting for the hot tub.

So here is the recipe for the worlds best hamburgers:

• 2 pounds extra-lean ground beef
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup rolled oats

At the recent SXSW conference, former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne gave a presentation called “Record Companies: Who Needs Them?”.

Besides the predicting that digital downloads will be the norm, and labels will either be reduced to marketing firms or will focus only on megastars, he also confesed that he gets all his music through eMusic or obtains it illegaly because of the DRM file constraints of iTunes.

While conceding the marketing costs in the digital era won’t be cheap, Byrne noted that sites like YouTube offer more possibilities to artists than MTV. He called up a YouTube video of a man standing in a cavern. “Nobody is telling you have to make a million dollar video,” Byrne said. “You can make it like this guy — stand in a dangerous place and everyone will watch.”

But first, he said, labels will have to remove their digital rights management (DRM) copyright-control technology. He said he buys most of his music online via eMusic, or obtains it illegally, due to the file constraints on files sold on iTunes. Byrne predicated that once DRM is removed, iTunes will no longer “have a monopoly,” and labels will be better prepared to deal with Web sales.

This guy really gets it and its encouraging that he has alot of respect. The times are a changing. Read the whole article here.

Being that I am in the “internet” biz and experienced the internet dot com gold rush and subsequent fall firsthand, I love the stories of the dot com’s that made it and didn’t.
The movie Startup.com and the comedy Dot are a great snapshot of this time in internet history.

As many readers may know, and is evident from all the advertising throughout my blog, I participate in a site called PayPerPost.com. It pays bloggers like myself to blog about products and services. I think I’ve talked enough about it elsewhere so I won’t try and sell you on it here (although you should click the ad in the sidebar).

Anyhoo

There is a site called RockStartUp.com that is chronicling the rise of this company and all the trappings of a fledgling startup dot com. It follows the reality show format and is not really breaking any new grounds here except that the times have changed and startups must be much more viable than before.

The cool thing is that they are releasing them as streaming videos, podcasts, RSS feeds etc. So you can subscribe and kinda watch almost in real time as they crash and burn or succeed. So far it’s been nothing but good. They have 14 episodes out now and I’m still catching up, but it’s a great look at how it all works.

Here’s episode 1

In an article on Inside Higher Ed, an online source for news, opinion and jobs for all of higher education, RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol and President Cary Sherman explain why they are suing college kids for piracy.

Besides the normal rhetoric of lower profits, artrists not getting paid, yada yada yada, there’s this bit:

Yet this is about far more than the size of a particular slice of the pie. This is about a generation of music fans. College students used to be the music industry’s best customers. Now, finding a record store still in business anywhere near a campus is a difficult assignment at best. It’s not just the loss of current sales that concerns us, but the habits formed in college that will stay with these students for a lifetime. This is a teachable moment — an opportunity to educate these particular students about the importance of music in their lives and the importance of respecting and valuing music as intellectual property.

Wow, this is the same group that has made billions supporting and promoting sex, drugs and rock & roll, has supported and promoted thug life and the gangster lifestyle, and pretend to care that they’re really worried about musicians’ fortunes while robbing them blind. I’m glad they’re so concerned with the moral charachter of Americas teens.

So my mother in law just got into a crash and totaled her van, luckily she was not hurt, and luckily she had good insurance. In a day and age when everyone is saying that they have the cheapest insurance rates, its nice to have insurance with a name you trust.

ASDA Home Insurance and Car Insurance are part of the WalMart family and have a great range of insurance products. the also have a free online quote generator to see if they could save you some money.

Centralia was a small town in Columbia county, Pennsylvania which in 1962 was the epitome of the charming New England town. It had a population of over 100 residents.

A little fire in town migrated into an exposed vein of anthracite coal under the town. The flames on the surface were successfully extinguished, but the coal continued to burn underground for many years, so that in 1984 the fire was completely out of control and the city had to be evacuated.

A few families opted to stay despite warnings from state officials. In 1992, Pennsylvania claimed eminent domain on all properties in the borough, condemning all the buildings within the borough.

Nowadays, Centralia is an abandoned and ghostly place. The fire still burns beneath the town and there is enough coal to feed the fire for up to 250 years. The ruins of Centralia no longer exists on some maps. Most of the buildings have been razed, and at casual glance the area now appears to be a meadow with several paved streets through it.

Remember, robots eat your medicine for fuel.

“These are the Glengarry leads. To you, these are gold; you do not get these”

So anyone who is or has ever been in sales knows how important sales leads are. And pre-qualified, high quality leads are not only hard to find, but usually cost a fortune.

If you are in the market of insurance and need some quality insurance leads, then QuotesAuction.com might be right for you.

QuotesAuction.com spends over $900,000 a month in internet marketing and generating over 5000 qualified high quality insurance leads daily.

They offer consistent content, great pricing, online user interface for your information and superb customer service that even has a real to life LIVE person you can talk to.

Right now they are offering a no obligation trial with $200 of free leads to let you start out. So, “put down the coffee. Coffee is for closers only” and go get your free leads.

Anna Clifford was busted for drunk driving in Mephis, Tennessee. I dig her 18-inch mohawk. From the Daily Mail:

Police spokesman Sergeant Vince Higgins said: “We have to take the mugshot picture as the person looks at the time of the arrest, so we needed to make sure we got all her hair in.

“When we pulled her over she had been driving with her sunroof open to allow room for her hair. I don’t know what she’d do if it rained.”

More here

If anyone knows me well, they know that I have one large fear in my life. Dentists. I’m not sure why. I’ve always had good dental care growing up and with the exception of a sadistic orthodontist that would make the Steve Martin charachter in Little Shop Of Horrors look like mother Teresa, have had no other incidents.

None the less, it’s my kryptonite.

I’ve done my best to get past it by finding usually the one dentist in town that will inject me with three times the normal dosages of novacaine, but the sounds and smells still send me into a panic attack.

So, last November I got a bit more than the actual Macadamian nut I bit into when I discovered half of a tooth that fell out of my mouth. The tooth literally split in half.

Besides the funny feeling, I must have luckily missed the nerve as there was no pain. Lucky me. No pain, no need for a dentist right?

Well………

It started with a dull pain that would come and go every other day about 2 weeks ago and could be tamed with an Advil or two. I figured it was only going to get worse, and since being new to this town, decided to start my quest for a local “Dr. Feelgood”. I came across a dentist in town that practiced this new thing called sedation dentistry.

What? They knock you out? You don’t feel a thing? They do a years worth of work in 4 hours while you sleep?

Where do I sign up!

Then the pain went from a 6 to an 11 in the course of about 2 days. I went from being able to manage it to “Get this F**KING thing outta my mouth”. Scenes of Tom Hanks performing a self root canal with a rock and a coconut actually sounded doable and perfectly capable at 3:00 in the morning.

Well, it comes to find out that in order to do the total sedation where they knock you out totally, you need to have a physical exam from your doctor plus another $400, both of which I didn’t have or cared to wait to get. So I settled for plan 2 which they gave me a Zanax the night before and then right before the procedure.

(insert Purple Haze background music now)

Wowee! The dentist numbed me up and at that point he could have taken out my liver, changed me to a her or given a “Happy Ending”. I didn’t care. All was good in the world. And with the exception to me sleeping for another 8 hours, I am now the happy owner of a new crowned tooth.

Hurra Torpedo Rocks!

I’m bumping this one back up again

Still as disturbing today as it was 2 years ago

Aphex Twin does it again. Teaming up with Director Chris Cunningham, they produce what could be the most disturbing of all AT’s videos. Watch with the lights out.

I’ve ranted about this subject before, and also here, and an old letter written by Courtney Love is making the rounds again, so I thought I’d share some other less read articles on the subject.

Jeff Tweedy from Wilco has a great interview as does ex-music executive Chris Kathman.

Do the people still want something shiny, aluminum, plastic, and digital? Debacle or cage, something has got to give (pdf). Alternatively, you can just roll your own.

Sprout is a neat flash game designed and created by Jeff Nusz of New Zealand. The puzzle / adventure game features beautiful charcoal drawings as the basis for its graphics and style, appearing as if taken directly from a storybook.The ‘grow’ theme is quite evident in this piece, as you will see. Click Here.