Music: Gary Granada: Original Filippino music graces story

Original Filippino music — Hat Tip to Filippino friend on Facebook

— MusicMan, refWrite Backpage music critic and reviewer

Principled Consumers: Enviro: Brain science helps outsmart advertizers trying to undo our savings and investments

When brain science turns to cognition and advertizing strategics, Jamie Turner in a piece "7 Consumer Behavior Secrets," in his free email newsletter 60 Second Marketer  (TM) sets your mind in motion of its own.  

Jamie Turner helps run the 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine for BKV Digital and Direct Response. He has helped clients like AT&T, CNN, Cartoon Network,  and The Coca-Cola Company grow their revenues through innovative marketing programs. His book, How to Make Money with Social Media will be published by the Financial Times  Press in the Fall of 2010.

Old copy that, perhaps the book mentioned as been published by now. Here are some of his recent thawts. 

— Principium Consumers Hub,
edited by EconoMix, refWrite Frontpage columnist

— Jamie Turner materials reposted here by EconoMix 

Jamie Turner says:  

 #1: Novelty is the single most effective factor in capturing our brain's precious attention. Believe it or not, people want to buy your products and services. And the way to get them to do that is to point out what makes your product new and different.

When people see something new, they're curious. And if they like what they see, they purchase it. So ask yourself -- how are you making your product or service seem new and different? That could be the key to your future success.

Secret #2: In many ways, women's brains are superior to men's brains.The female brain has 25% more connections between the right and left hemispheres than the male brain. Because of this, women are much better at communication and multitasking.

As you can see from the image below, men's brains are not as complex as women's, which explains why men are only capable of holding three thoughts in their brain -- Is the game on? Is the beer cold? Am I going to get busy tonight?

Secret #3: Humans often don't know why they prefer one brand over another. We have a great article about this on the site called "Coke vs. Pepsi. The Taste Test they Don't Want You to Know About." The article discusses why Coke and Pepsi score about 50/50 in blind taste tests, but score 75/25 in favor of Coke in non-blind taste tests. Interesting, eh? For more details, check out the article on the site.

Secret #4: People buy for emotional reasons then rationalize their purchase with logic. Here's a fact -- men don't buy Porsches for logical reasons, they buy them for emotional reasons. But if you interview a man after he purchases a Porsche, he'll rationalize the purchase with logic.

What are the emotional triggers you can use to sell your product or service? If you can uncover them, you may have found an easy way to grow your sales and revenues.

Secret #5: Different parts of the brain control different stimuli responses.Our instincts are controlled by the Subcortical and Limbic areas, also known as our Lizard Brain. The Lizard Brain responds to stimuli based on the 4 Fs -- Fight, Flight, Food and Procreation. By appealing to the 4 Fs, you can create an emotional bond between your consumer and your brand.

In other words, appeal to your consumer's basic instincts -- it's a great way to get them to buy more of your products or services.

Secret #6: Data indicates that humans respond best to 13 specific words in advertising. This data is based on years and years of testing by direct response agencies like BKV. The words are (drumroll, please) Free, You, Save, Money, Easy, Guarantee, Health, Results, New, Love, Discovery, Proven, Safety.

Secret #7: We take in 11 million bits of information per second, but the brain can only process 40 bits per second. What this means is that the brain is on over-load much of the time. If you want to stick out in the crowd, then simplify your message and your marketing. It's what Steve Jobs did and, hey, it worked for him.

Movies: TV: The Crazies (2k10)

This is a true horror flick, of recent vintage, yet an update from the more recent formulaics.  A small Iowa town is impacted severely by toxins in the water supply.  You coud almost consider this movie  as evidence of a new subgenre "Enviro Horror flick" — horror as a living/dead tradition.  Eerie distant wheezes.

MoviesMan, refWrite Backpage movie critic and reviewer

TV: Show: Witchcraft and Espionage on your screen

I had t+m to watch whatever was on the channel "Space" today, and up came the show "The Secret Circle" (yes, I had seen episisodes on occasion previously).  In this episode "Traitor," a younger set of woud-be good witches are being webbed into the control of an older witch (with aspirations to combine their energies in himself) to become the Grand Master of the coven and the most powerful witch in living memory.  The episode, as in the case of the previous I had checked out, was well written, well l+ted and well cinematographed.

But it's worldview was starkly contrastive to the Christian orientation to life and world (which is sadly incompetent yet to compete for TV slots).  So, the whole viewing experience set me to reflecting on the apparent dominance on TV of this commercially-viable stream of horror, witchery, vampirey, ghoul, demonism, werewolvery, and suchl+k.  Movie features and TV episodes have "developed" to the point where such shows are a staple of our entertainment system in the USA and Canada, to somebody's profit but not necessarily to the TV audience's edification.  All in the name of entertainment.  As a matter of fact, I suggest that this element is significant in the zeitgeist of our t+mz.  It seems to be beyond the ken even of Francis Schaeffer, the well-known Evangelical culture critic of a previous generation, whose most important followers were Chuck Colson (recently deceased, RIP) and Nancy Pearcey (a former student also of Albert Wolters)  — she has done some philosophical reflection on Sufism which may possibly have meant that she had to contemplate occultic phenomena from another culture mileu.

Back a little in t+m, the British poet Charles Williams had circulated in the movement of the Golden Dawn circles, but in t+m he came to develop a critique of witchery, distinguishing between good magic and bad.  Some of his novels reflect this journey, raise some possibly fruitful questions regarding the narrowness of our mainstream Christian spirituality but take us in a rather supernaturalist direction.  A good reformational-philosophical and literary-critical study of Williams contribution has not yet taken place.  He became a member of the Christian literary circle "The Inklings," a group that included CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Owen Barfield, and Williams, at Oxford University during WWII.  Williams died soon thereafter.  "The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction, and encouraged the writing of fantasy. Although Christian values were notably present in several members' work, there were also irreligious members of the discussion group," says Wikpedia.  Lewis claimed among his literary mentors the Scottish fantasy writer George MacDonald, whose greatest work perhaps is Lilith, while Williams' prose works became best known for what TS Eliot called "spiritual thrillers" (there were 7 of them).


I think that transformaton of the Inklings legacy from text to film woud be further enhanced, following the making of movies based on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and Lewis's Narnia series, were a caring fiancier to produce Williams works l+k War in Heaven, Place of the Lion,  Descent into Hell and others.  Charles Seper has recently advised us of the Return of the Spiritual Thriller.

Charles Williams made you feel the tug of both the malevolent and benevolent upon your psyche in all that you do. Eliot describes feeling this way in the presence of Williams:

“I have always believed that he would have been equally at ease in every kind of supernatural company; that he would never have been surprised or disconcerted by the intrusion of any visitor from another world, whether kindly or malevolent; and that he would have shown exactly the same natural ease and courtesy, with an exact awareness of how one should behave, to an angel, a demon, a human ghost, or an elemental. For him there was no frontier between the material and the spiritual world…He could have joked with the devil and turned the joke against him. To him the supernatural was perfectly natural, and the natural was also supernatural. And this peculiarity gave him that profound insight into Good and Evil.”

I have gone so far in this meditation, becawz I see the zeitgeistliche distance from the end of World War II to the postmodernism of today, where rationality itself is suspect, as the occasion of the rise of today's zeitgeist (whether there are terror wars or no) in which curiosity and appetite for horror and supernaturalism in entertainment is at h+ t+d.  I think the Christian writers who have dealt with these themes have something to offer superior to what the secularists and satanists are doing in film and TV today.

Next, if you get a chance, take t+me to view the movie Next, starring Nicolas Cage.  For once, he's a good guy, a small-t+m magician who's got a gig in Las Vegas.  but nevertheless nevertheless this good=guy role has him drawn into espionage -- or rather, counter-espionage, counter=terrorism, in a govt attempt to stop a nuclear explosion by terrorists (not Muslim or Middle Eastern), who are bent on triggering the warhead in Los Angeles.

The movies signals quite dramatically the rise parallel to the horror and demonic thread, another motif that comes on stream, carried by the impact of Pentecostalism on American life and culture.  L+k numerous other movies and TV series, Next points to people gifted with unusual powers.  In America and Canada, we're used to this motif is played out in TV shows l+k The Mutants and The X-men  — but of course it has a longer, deeper history in entertainment and daily life.  I won't spoil Next's story-l+n by detailing what the character played by Cage has as his personal gift.

The mention here of espionage brings us to a further point, I want to mention this round.
 
                                             ————————————————

The other show I watched, Nikita (Canadian-made), comes under the category of espionage entertainment.  Thank God that producers have cleaned out the "stars" of the previous editions.  Nikita is no long the (platinum) blonde she was, and her collegue is no longer to be seen, he and she being among the most unbelievable I've ever seen — the actors who filled both these leading roles were wet fish, cold as ice, and they did not act so much as pose.  A TV episode devoted entirely to poses dwells all too long on those extended still-life moments where the camera dwells on the face and torso, clothed albeit, all too long.  In more erotic movies this element enhances the portrayal of the attitude of desire, but not even that quality was present in the old Nikita episodes.  It was pornographic without being hot, sexual, or a distillate of longing and desire.  Good riddance to the old!  And welcome to the new, at least for the t+m being.

— MovieMan, refWrite Backpage movie and TV critic and reviewer

Music: Jazz: Nik Bartsch group performs Ronin

Hat Tip to Steve Bishop

Quite wonderful!

— Musikos, refWrite Backlpage miusic columnist and critic
— reposted on refWrite's affiliated YouTube channel, yUT2ube,

Sports: NHL hockey: Caps defeat Bruins, catapult to next level of playoffs

Posted at 05:39 PM ET, 04/25/2012

Game 7: Joel Ward scores in overtime to lift Capitals over Bruins, 2-1, and into second round

By Lindsay Applebaum

Faceoff: 7:30 p.m., TD Garden 
TV: CSN, NBCSN | Radio: 1500 AM
Capitals win series, 4-3

Updates are in reverse-chronological order.

— reposted here by Sportikos, refWrite Backpage sports columnist

(John McDonnell/The Washington Post)Postgame: With a seven-game victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Bruins, the Capitals head into the second round of the playoffs for the second straight year.

We won't know the Caps’ opponent in the Eastern Conference semifinals until tomorrow night’s games. Here’s how it shakes out:

— If the Rangers beat Ottawa, Washington opens the second round in New York. 
— If the Rangers lose and Florida wins, Washington opens the second round in Philadelphia. 
— If the Rangers lose and New Jersey wins, Washington opens the second round in New Jersey.

---

2:57 OT: Joel Ward scores off a Mike Knuble rebound to push the Caps into the second round of the playoffs with a 2-1 victory in Game 7.

When the Caps signed Ward to a four-year, $12 million contract in the offseason, General Manager George McPhee said the winger’s best quality was how much he raises his game in the playoffs. After finishing the regular season with just six goals and 12 assists, Ward’s offensive production in the postseason hadn’t seen much of an increase. But his goal tonight probably makes up for that a good deal.

A lot of the credit for the game winner goes to Knuble, who was a healthy scratch for the first three games of these playoffs. The 39-year-old winger shot the puck on a 2-on-1 and then kept Thomas busy in the crease as Ward swatted in the rebound.

(John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

---

End 3rd: Caps PKers get it done, and we’re now headed to the fourth overtime of this playoff series. Why wouldn’t this game go to overtime?

That also makes it the seventh straight one-goal game (these teams already played six one-goal games for the first time in NHL history).

---

17:34 3rd: Chimera goes off for holding Boychuk in the offensive zone, giving the Bruins a crucial power play with just 2:26 remaining. Big two minutes coming up for Braden Holtby, who’s been a little shakier this game than previous ones.

---

13:00 3rd: Caps are unable to capi­tal­ize, as Seidenberg has a possibly game-saving block on Ovechkin’s best chance.

---

11:00 3rd: Caps get their first power play of the game, Bergeron with a hook on Laich.

---

7:00 3rd: Ovechkin has barely been on the ice this period, it seems. He’s played just 1:58. Line matching or defensive liability aside, seems odd to not have your top goal scorer on the ice more in Game 7.

---

3:30 3rd: Caps kill off the Bruins power play, now 0 for 2 in this game. Washington still hasn’t had a chance on the man advantage.

---

1:18 3rd: Hamrlik called for holding the stick, Caps’ PK gets back to work to start the third period.

---

---

End 2nd: Caps and Bruins are tied after 40 minutes, with Bruins leading in shots (25-13) and hits (25-20).

Ovechkin hasn't been much of a presence for the Caps, playing just 9:37 and taking only one shot.

---

14:27 2nd: Tyler Seguin knocks in a rebound to tie this game at 1-1. Holtby had the first stop on Boychuk but the rebound trickled by him.

---

(John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

13:30 2nd: It’s been a solid start of the game for Keith Aucoin, who on his last shift just denied Rolston on an open-net rebound.

---

6:16 2nd: Karl Alzner takes down Chris Kelly in front, and fans at TD Garden are very unhappy at the no-call. The refs are definitely letting them play to this point.

---

2:38 2nd: Ovechkin nearly made this game 2-0 but lost the puck thanks to a diving poke check by Thomas.

---

1st int: From Tarik: The Caps played a solid road period in the first -- strong defensively and made the B's pay for a bad turnover. In this series, the team that's scored first has won five times. 

A couple of things to look for in the second period: Caps defenseman Dennis Wideman has struggled this series and isn't off to a great start; Bruins forward Tyler Seguin has a taken a game-high three shots and is flying tonight. 

---

End 1st: Shots are 11-5 Bruins and the Caps will have to kill off 10 seconds of a power play to start the second period, but they’ve still got all the momentum after a strong opening frame.

Hendricks’s goal, by the way, ends Tim Thomas’s Game 7 shutout streak at 139:03 (1-0 win against Tampa Bay in the conference finals and 4-0 win over Vancouver in the Stanley Cup final).

— Let’s call this sequence Playoff Goal Hug in Motion:
(John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
(John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
( John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

---

18:10 1st: Brad Marchand draws a penalty as Jeff Schultz is whistled for tripping. Bruins get the game's first power play to close out the period.

---

11:23 1st: Matt Hendricks redirects a John Carlson shot from the point and Caps are on the board first, 1-0. Always good to score first, especially in this series — the first team to score has won five times.

Looks like the goal is still being credited to Carlson, but if it gets changed, that’s the first career playoff goal for 30-year-old Hendricks.

---

6:30 1st: Bruins have a 4-2 edge in shots, though they haven’t really made it tough for Holtby yet.

Here's a cool stat via Mike Wise, via Craig Laughlin: Coach Dale Hunter is the only player ever to end two playoff series with goals. Quebec-Habs '82, Flyers-Caps '88.

---

2:36 1st: Caps are buzzing. Chimera and Backstrom have both had good chances, and Ovechkin started his night off with a big hit on Seidenberg. Shots are 2-0 Caps.

---

0:42 1st: Game on, and fans at TD Garden are chanting “HOLT-BY” already.

---

7:07 p.m.: Jeff Schultz is indeed back in the lineup, while John Erskine will sit this one out. Here‘s how the lineup shakes out for Game 7:

Forwards
Ovechkin-Laich-Brouwer
Johansson-Backstrom-Semin
Chimera-Beagle-Hendricks
Knuble-Aucoin-Ward

Defense
Alzner-Carlson
Hamrlik-Green
Schultz-Wideman

Goal
Holtby
Neuvirth

Caps warm up ahead of Game 7. (John McDonnell/Washington Post)

---

5:40 p.m.: Big hockey game tonight, as you may or may not have heard. We’ve written a little bit about it, as you may or may not have read. If not, feel free to catch up here. There’s not too much more to say until the puck drops (7:42 p.m., to be exact), but I’ll be back with some lines after the Caps take warmup. In the meantime, comments are open as usual.

Follow us: @kcarrera | @tarikelbashir | @mikewiseguy | @lindsapple

By Lindsay Applebaum  |  05:39 PM ET, 04/25/2012

Personal Post

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Previous: George McPhee: Capitals ‘needed to win a series like this’

Next: For Caps, it’s simple: Just shoot the puck

Technics: Robots galore: 15 specimens of new mechanical species courtesy of USA military-industrial complex

15 USA Military Robots Of The Future: 

Visual Tour

by John Soat

#1 CHARLi

You haven't seen flying, swimming, and fighting robots like these before. The Department of Defense is expanding its robotics research with new initiatives to develop machines that can drive, climb, extinguish fires, or perform other automated tasks. The ultimate goal includes using robots in dangerous situations that would otherwise put U.S. soldiers at risk.

In two recent developments, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) launched a"grand challenge" for robot builders, and the Naval Research Laboratory opened its Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR), which will focus on cutting-edge research in robotics and autonomous systems.

DARPA is offering a $2 million prize to build a robot capable of using human tools and navigating disaster-response scenarios. Contestants' robots will be required to travel across rubble, remove debris from a blocked entryway, and climb a ladder, for example. A humanoid form isn't required in the challenge, but DARPA does plan to provide a hardware platform with arms, legs, torso, and head to some entrants.

A previous DARPA challenge produced several automobiles that were capable of driving themselves. And a four-legged robot called Cheetah, developed by Boston Dynamics with DARPA funding, recently achieved a galloping speed of up to 18 miles per hour, a new record for legged robots.

The new Naval Research Laboratory facility will be used to develop robots for use by the Navy, Marines, and other branches of the DOD. Its work is consistent with the National Robotics Initiative, a federal effort to develop robots to help solve problems in defense, space, health, and manufacturing.

The U.S. military has been working on humanoid robots for years. Students at Virginia Tech College of Engineering's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa), with funding from DARPA, produced CHARLi. The human-looking, five-foot-tall robot can walk upright.

In many cases, military robots have applications outside of the battlefield. Last year, CHARLi helped Virginia Tech take home the gold from the Robocup soccer tournament in Istanbul.

Take a look at the other futuristic robots en route.

Image credit: RoMeLa

Info Week Govt (Apr25,2k11)

— reposted here by Technowlb, refWrite Backpage tech columnist

Music: Country USA: 2005 Idol TV show winner

If you subscribe to iTunes email newsletter, check for Ms Underwood's latest album, Blown Away.  Suberb vocalizations in the mode of Country Music USA.  Orchestration of the instruments tops, too.

— CountryGal, refWrite Backpage music columnist

Technics: Pinterest online: Stats by Jamie Turner's email newsletter

Jamie Turner  is a tech businessman who sends out a free email newsletter called 60 second marketer, and in his Ari25,2k12 edition on "Pinterest Infographics," Jamie presents some fascinating stats to show who uses the Pinterest webs+t.  Pinterest is an Internet facility devoted to photo-images, much as YouTube is devoted to videos.  I'm a member of Pinterest and, thus, I can "pin" a photo on the web and post it to my P page in a category file.  Yo can also get "Pin It" device on your web-browser menu bar to select images from your browsing to place among your collection at the webs+t.  You can post your own photo-images, but in the background are the concerns for design, artistic products, and elegance of objects from everyday life, or cuture. Occasionally, I've posted one of my pins or another member's, on refWrite.  I have about five categories (Joy, Nature, Faces-Hair-Bodies, Furniture, and Architecture - see my page) by which I organize my selections along with those of other folks who subscribe to the free webs+t. 

Jamie is offering a webinar tomorrow called "Pinterest, Google+ and New Facebook webinar" (1:00 pm ET USA and thus 6:00 pm London OK).  If the link below is live, you can try to get in on this webinar.  So, my tech topics here are:  webinars, infographics, and t+mliness.

— Technowlb

Arts: Dance: Indonesians with disabilities dance contemporary View it!

A one-armed woman and a one-legged man dance fabulously wonderfully.

Hat Tip to Wishnu Hunggoro

refWrite's affiliated YouTube video channel yUT2ube carries this video and many more.

Sports: NHL Hockey playoffs: Washington Caps 3 vs Boston Bruins 4

Capitals fans, burned before, have been left scarred

by Mike Wise, WaPo Sports columnist
Read him here WaPo (Apr23,2k12)

— Sportikos, refWrite Backpage sports columnist
— all WaPo sports materials reposted and edited by Sportikos

Here’s Washington Capitals' lineup for Game 6:

Ovechkin-Laich-Brouwer 
Johansson-Backstrom-Semin 
Hendricks-Beagle-Chimera 
Knuble-Aucoin-Ward

Defense
Alzner-Carlson 
Hamrlik-Green 
Erskine-Wideman

Goal
Holtby 
Neuvirth

Boston Bruin's roster but last-minute changes for Monday's game here.

Wednesday's next game for the Caps and the Bruins in the playoffs, coming up.

WED APR 25, 2012

CAPITALS

BRUINS

7:30 PM

CBC, RDS, NBCSN, NESN(HD)

TICKETS

Posted Apr22,2k12

Game 6: Seguin scores in overtime 

to lift Bruins over Caps, 4-3, force decisive Game 7

Monday's Loss to the Bruins, as it happened


by Lindsay Applebaum  (Apr|22,2k12) 

Tyler Seguin ends it in OT — good timing for his first goal of these playoffs — to give the Bruins a 4-3 victory, and we head back to Boston for the decisive Game 7 on Wednesday.

See Seguin’s game-winning goal after the jump.

Overtime: Caps win the faceoff, overtime is underway.

Read more ...