Monday, November 29, 2010

Satire: coming to this blog-entry: later today / ton+t; it's already dark 7:09 PM

Yep.  refWr+t frontpage brawt yoo here for more l+k this tidbit already mentioned for your reading pleasure ... remember ? .... 

EconomyUSA: Corporations: 

Wild satire of corporate greed in America at Christmast+m

Sashay yo'self over to The Onion, America's online satire magazeen supremo.  The article of note is "20,000 sacrificed in annual blood offering to corporate America" (Nov29,2k10).   Then you sashay, after yoo reed it, sash yo'self on back here to refWr+t backpage to get all the good comments thereupon.


-- Satyriasis and Satirkos, backpage demons
Above is the teaser we used to lure refWr+t baclpage to the sat+r features that our blog has offered from its earliest days, tho long neglected among the blog-entries, refWrite backpage's S+dbar has run its automatic feed from the best there is for an online s+dbar feature, specializing in the satyr's fare, sat+r.


Cosider that The Onion has a bunion achin' in its shoe:
The onslawt of stores and services waving their arms frantically trying to stop the vehicles zooming past where they stand on the s+d of the road.  Corporate greed, advertizing thru all the media, and consumerist greed three Furies confluent at the very season when the Church tries to mediate on the middle-class origins of the noo w+f of a person in the building and construction business, who probably had contracts from t+m to t+m and place to place with the Roman occupation authorities.   Now at Christmast+m after the Meltdown what stands out in the everyday culture is the desperation of these big retail machines, they'd stand out most glowingly, glaringly.  But anyway, still, 'tis the season to be jolly.


Black Friday Starts to Brighten

Weekend Spending, Foot Traffic Rise From Last Year but Could Reflect Hunger for Biggest Bargains




 ELIZABETH HOLMES and RACHEL DODES, Wall Street Journal (Nov29,2k10)



The Black Friday shopping weekend signaled a rosier holiday season than last year, with early figures showing higher traffic and sales at stores and websites.
Retailers extended the shopping blitz from a day to an entire week, offering "door buster" promotions in the days leading up to the Thanksgiving weekend. And deals for "Cyber Monday," typically the first Monday after Thanksgiving, began showing up online earlier as well.
The string of promotions appeared to have succeeded in getting consumers to open their wallets. Roughly 212 million shoppers visited a store or website over the weekend, an increase of 8.7% from last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

Ready, Set, Shop!

[SB10001424052748704693104575638282850212118]
European Pressphoto Agency
People walked past Macy's in the pre-dawn hours on Black Friday in New York.
The average shopper spent $365.34, up 6.4%, according to the federation, which surveyed 4,306 people on Thursday through Saturday and made projections for Sunday.
EXPERIENCE WSJ PROFESSIONAL

Editors' Deep Dive: Luxury Goods Propelling Profits

Access thousands of business sources not available on the free web. Learn More



Now what I wanted to tell you, and have been holding back on, hoping I'd t+r out the weaker readers and select out for those stronger readers who coud best stomach the ins+d scoop.  Here's the belated goods:


Just hours back today, I was reeding about the evangelical Christian, former Gen. Bare Naked of Sierra Leone, now a fellow beleever who is acknowleging his sins -- and they are big and bleak.  But, in the course of the telling this former priest-warrior of the Kahne tribe, tells how he had been responsiible for the death of 20,000 persons.  He conducted rituals of sacrifice of human children. Now he's preparing to say he's guilty to the International Criminal Court, shoud they come his way.  Now I go back to The Onion story on the 20,000 sacrif+ced to the consumerist god FullBelly.  Or is that BullFelly?


And ain't truth stranger than fiction?
-- I homil+z, Owlb

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Technics: Social Media: Gonna' take over the workplace?

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette carries an article by Elwin Green on "Workzone: Social media slowly finding acceptance in workplace" (Nov28,2k10):

Workzone: 
Social media slowly finding acceptance in workplace

Within the next few years, companies that have resisted the use of social media in the workplace may find that resistance is futile.


Earlier this month, a representative of technology research firm Gartner Inc. predicted 20 percent of employees will use social networks rather than e-mail as their business communications hub by 2014. 
Speaking at an information technology expo in Cannes, France, research vice president Monica Basso said, "Today, social paradigms are converging with e-mail, instant messaging and presence, creating new collaboration styles."


Just days later, Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg announced the social networking giant will soon roll out Facebook Messages, an offering that will integrate new e-mail features with texting and chat.
The most important element of the foregoing may be "new collaboration styles."
-- Technowlb

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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Toronto the Good: Debate: Morals of religion Tony Blair vs Christopher Hitchens

This evening in Toronto and me completely oblivious,  Tony Blair billed as a recent "convert to Catholicism" (as those his previous membership in the Anglican Church was not just as much Christian, and Christopher Hitchens, the renowned bombastic now shorn of his hair due to cancer treatments, debated in our town at the Roy Thompson Hall, downtown in the theatre district.




Christopher Hitchens 1-0 Tony Blair

Staunch atheist wins over audience in debate with Catholic convert over whether religion is a force for good in the world
Tony Blair (left) and Christopher Hitchens before their debate on religion
Former British prime minister Tony Blair (left) and author Christopher Hitchens before their debate on religion. Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters

In theory it was not an event that should have created a stir: a philosophical debate on the moral merits of religion. In an age of reality TV drama and Hollywood blockbusters loaded with special effects it would seem hard to get the masses to flock to witness such an old-fashioned, high brow spectacle.
But when the two debaters are the world's most famous recent Roman Catholic convert in the shape of Tony Blair and the charismatic yet cancer-stricken sceptic Christopher Hitchens suddenly it becomes easier to sell tickets.
Two thousand seven hundred tickets to be precise. For that was the size of the crowd that packed the space age-looking Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto late last night to watch the two ideological foes – when it comes to religion – spar and trade verbal blows.
The occasion was part of the Munk Debate series, organised by the Aurea Foundation group, and the motion was simply: "Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world".
Both men were unabashedly stalwart in their positions. Hitchens, one of the leading "new atheists" and author of the hit book God Is Not Great, slammed religion as nothing more than supernatural gobbledegook that caused untold misery throughout human history. "Once you assume a creator and a plan it make us subjects in a cruel experiment," Hitchens said before causing widespread laughter by comparing God to "a kind of divine North Korea".
Blair, perhaps not surprisingly, was a little less forthright. On the backfoot for much of the debate he kept returning to his theme that many religious people all over the world were engaged in great and good works. They did that because of their faith, he argued, and to slam all religious people as ignorant or evil was plain wrong. "The proposition that religion is unadulterated poison is unsustainable," he said. Blair called religion at its best "a benign progressive framework by which to live our lives".
Throughout the 90-minute debate Hitchens seemed to have the crowd's sympathy. That might have been to do with his ill appearance due to cancer, but was far more likely to be down to the sharpness of his verbal barbs and the fact that 57% of the audience already agreed with his sceptical position according to a pre-debate poll, while just 22% agreed with Blair's side. The rest were undecided.
But the true winner of the debate was most likely the organisers. The high-profile debaters and controversial subject matter ensured not only a packed hall but an overflow location where people who could not get tickets were able to watch it on TV monitors. Tickets sold out weeks ago and were selling on eBay for several times their cover price. The debate was also trailed on the front pages of some Canadian newspapers and covered by local television.
It even attracted a small but vocal knot of anti-Iraq war protestors accusing Blair of war crimes. Demonstrators unveiled placards that read "Arrest Blair" and "War criminals not welcome here", proving that, as with the merits of religion, some arguments are unlikely to ever be settled with a single night's debate.


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    A country of only 650,000 total population has had its premiere women's soccer team put under the miocroscope to question the private parts of some team members.  But we shoud all remember that cases of hermaphroditism (which comes in innumberable varieties) def+nz persons as non-males in many societies.  So, if the women's teams want such persons to be included in their roster of legit players, who's to question.  We can't pretend that human beings only come in two clear-cut varieties, male or female.  Tho small in number, there are many varieties inbetween, physiologically speaking.



    Equatorial Guinea's footballers caught up in gender row

    Country accused of fielding two men in recent African women's championship after reaching tournament final
    Equatorial Guinea
    Equatorial Guinea's women's football team. Captain Genoveva Anonma is on the right of the back row; striker Salimata Simpore is second from the left on the front row.

    To field one man in a women's football team may be regarded as unfortunate. To field two looks like carelessness – or blatant cheating.
    -- Sportikos
    This is the accusation levelled at Equatorial Guinea, the tiny west African country, with a population of 650,000.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/26/equatorial-guinea-footballers-gender-row?intcmp=239

    Posted by Unknown at 7:40 PM 0 comments

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    Music: CountryUSA: Keith Urban announces summer tour June 2011



    Keith Urban struts his "always-captivating showmanship" ...

    anounces his June 16 launch
    of his summer tour "Get Closer" ...

    photo by fellow artist & guitarist
    John Mayer





    Keith Urban is set to return to the road next summer, along with special, yet-to-be-announced guests, with a U.S. tour that will debut in Mobile, Alabama on June 16, 2011.  The “Get Closer 2011 World Tour” will have an all-new stage production that will feature Keith’s always-captivating showmanship.
    “Playing live is what it’s always been about for me,” said Keith in a statement. “It’s creating in the moment, it’s the joy, the electricity, the unexpected, the passion and the unknown journey that we’re all taking together. I’ve always felt that the best live concert experiences tap into a deep need in all of us to feel a part of something…to belong. I’m bringing the big boom box and an arsenal of songs and I can’t wait to throw this party!!!!”
    The “Get Closer 2011 World Tour” will make stops in Nashville, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Washington DC, and other locations and will not only include songs from Keith’s deep catalog of hits, including “Better Life”, “You’ll Think Of Me”, “Days Go By”, “Somebody Like You” and “Sweet Thing”, but will feature the debut of music from his sixth studio CD, Get Closer, including his latest single, ”Put You In A Song.” Get Closer follows two previous consecutiveBillboard country and pop No. 1 albums, as well as five previous CDs, all of which have been certified platinum or multi-platinum.
    For a complete list of tour dates and ticket information, visit http://www.keithurban.net/">Keith Urban.
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    -- Country Gal

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