Days You Remember

Fritidsresor is a Stockholm-based travel company. They've a highly effective ad campaign labeled "Dagarna du minns" or translated, Days You Remember.

Days you remember -

Life consists of 29 000 days
Of those days we sleep away 10 000
An additional 9000 are spent working
We're watching TV around 2000 days
And also sit at the computer more & more
And how many days consist of nothing…
For each of us the days soon end
So take care of them
For me it's not days that pass
There are days you remember.

(video w/ Mads Mikkelson is here - Swedish)

(Here's another)

Eight hours working, one and a half to get there & back.
Five hours in front of the television, computer & phone ..
Shopping: twenty minutes;
Cook dinner: twelve minutes, consumed in fifteen...
Of course we always crave time together.
For life's not those days flying by
There are days you remember!

Dagarna du minns -

Livet består av 29 000 dagar
Av dem dagarna sover vi bort 10 000
Och arbetar ytterliggare 9000
Vi tittar på tv ungefär 2000 dagar
Och sitter dessutom framför datorn allt mer
Och hur många dagar går inte bara åt till ingenting
Dem tar fort slut alla dagarna
Så var rädd om dom
För mig är det inte dagarna som passerar
Det är dagarna du minns

----------------------------------

Åtta timmar på jobbet, en och en halv dit och hem.

Fem timmar framför tvn, datorn och i telefon..
Handla: tjugo minuter;

Laga middag: tolv minuter, som vi sen äter på en kvart.
Inte konstigt att vi alltid längtar efter tid tillsammans,
för livet är inte dagarna som passerar,
det är dagarna du minns!

Rudely Defined World

Much of the world is ill-defined and beyond our understanding.

But we reasonably try to define & explain what is happening around us. Such efforts are commendable, and have led humankind to huge achievements. However, serious problems regularly arise when interpretation & speculation become rigidly assumed to be fact. Scientists often note & comment upon the bits not fitting their model before defining them out of further consideration. As an arbitrarily-defined field of inquiry becomes a rigid paradigm, we become corralled into accepting something actively resistant to redefinition. Our peer community forcibly seeks to ignore that which has been defined as anomaly. More on these topics can be found in Popper's analysis of falsifiability, and in Kuhn (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Let's look at the example of "full time" work: in the USA and South Korea this is generally defined as a 40+ hour work week over some 50 weeks per year. Such working life impacts on wider life in numerous ways: the rewards of work are used during free time and for maintenance, the quality of non-work time is affected by the large (by definition "full") time dedicated to employment.

In Sweden, all employees have a guaranteed five-week holiday each year. Further, many people are able to work part of the week at home, or to arrive late & depart from work early due to family obligations. Many permanently employed people (tillsvidareanställda, fast anställda) choose voluntarily to work only a percentage of the normal work week. (I know many such people; I'll try to insert data here on how many such people exist). In sum, operating under the Korean definition of "full time work" there are very few Swedes working full time: perhaps five percent (5%) of the population... or even less.

This is not implying Swedes are lazy, or poor. Rather, many have found a balance of living in a flexible, more human focused system. The Korean "Pali Pali" (빨리빨리) hurry hurry system is defined here as unhealthy.

I'll write more later - time now for a coffee break.

Hard Sell Nossel

Suzanne Nossel was recently named Executive Director of PEN American Center.

PEN American Center is the key US component to the worldwide literary & human rights PEN organization, so many around the world are disappointed when a government insider quickly can encroach into territory protecting dissenting voices. Hundreds of people have served as dedicated volunteers over decades. This lawyer wench suddenly vaults in, and shows salary comes before sincerity.

Complaining PEN members include Chris Hedges.

Nossel lasted only a year as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, before abruptly leaving, purportedly for personal reasons. In fact, her appointment there was widely criticized. Her thirst for advocacy and human rights has been distinguished & consistent: she's a salaried apologist for big government and American/Israeli hegemony. Nossel's unlikely to protect the free expression of dirty little writers or grimy dissidents (no support for Bradley Manning or Julian Assange or Haneen Zoabi). Nossel's a well-groomed lackey of the ruling class. Expect her to help the powerful, and to help herself.

Blood Bounty Beware

Christopher Dorner, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer, claimed unjust treatment from his employer. Seeking satisfaction, he was hunted for murder in February 2013, wanted for allegedly killing and terrorizing people across California.

To help halt Dorner's alleged crime spree, an assortment of public & private groups contributed to a bounty fund of US$1.1 million dollars. Citizens provided tips ultimately leading law enforcement to surround and capture Dorner, but he died in the process (sheltering in a cabin that inexplicably caught fire, he reportedly shot himself). Now some of the reward funders refuse to pay the bounty, claiming they sought "capture, apprehension and conviction" -- conditions unmet.

Carefully read the fine print. Always get an offer in writing. Reconfirm with a lawyer... So slow.

Plea bargains and the federal Witness Protection Program have also been criticized in the past for promises not met. Surely legalistic administrative scams stand in the way of justice and the public interest. Loss of trust in the system might delay the apprehension of dangerous people in the future.

Pay the stoolies and keep the community safe!

In the Dorner manhunt, LAPD officers reportedly gunned down multiple drivers, mistaking their cars for Dorner's vehicle. In one case, grandmother Emma Hernandez & her daughter were delivering morning newspapers when their car was riddled without warning by eight officers firing 102 shots (also pockmarking homes in the surrounding neighborhood); both women survived. The cops had good reason to feel nervous, but public safety is also important, as is trust in officialdom. The LAPD's quick promise of a replacement truck for Hernandez did not materialize as expected; the Dorner reward money is still unpaid... all this fuels disbelief in public officials and casts doubt on their statements. Loss of trust can quickly become very expensive for everyone. Best pay as promised.

Factory Schools

There has been an upsurge of effort in the USA to make education more responsive and accountable. Teachers are criticized for being chronically unresponsive to both student and society's needs - and fundamentally lazy. Public school systems are regularly depicted by media as out of control.

But wait. This same media is repeatedly accused of liberal bias.

In fact, what's happening is a purge. Teachers are out of control, if we mean not under the control of right-wing demagogues. The real effort is to sweep aside the social checks-and-balances so important in democratic society, such as an independent judiciary, investigative media, and an educated population. The enemy are the people who brought you "The Vietnam War" and "Operation Iraqi Bullshit" -- military contractors,  whoring politicians, and neo-fascist ('neo-con') corporatist schemers.

Mr Corporate Jackass is a captain of industry who knows squat about education. But he steps up to the microphone to condemn 'non-performing schools' and demand privatization. These same people brought us catsup as our midday vegetable, and a soda machine in every school lunch line. They care nothing for children.

Children don't respond in the same way as other raw materials on an assembly line. They can't and shouldn't be trashed as defective. Mr. Corporate controls his assembly line, the inputs and throughput, but the school system has access to children for only part of the day. How well would a factory operate if outside of work hours the line and the components were open to manipulation, adulteration, tampering & weakening?

As Mayor Rahm Emanuel closes 54 Chicago public schools, he's too kissy-cozy with corporate and foreign interests, selling out the future of many neighborhoods and many children. Similarly, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is hell-bent on a more businesslike Camden school district (his lobbying background for Edison Schools Inc. paid corporate dividends as they also placed their former president Chris Cerf as Commissioner of Education for the State of NJ). But let's get real: any ranking creates some group ranked below average (by definition). There is more to education than standardized tests. Local people see the snake and know its danger. Rahm Emmanuel claims to care deeply about public school kids as his own brats enjoy fancy private school where half day for nursery kids costs over $17,000 annually. The ideals of Mr. Mayor's kids's school should apply citywide:
"We ignite and nurture an enduring spirit of scholarship, curiosity, creativity, and confidence. We value learning experientially, exhibiting kindness, and honoring diversity."

But that's for them who owns the factory... common pigs eat swill.

AEIOU people

Place appeal & destination marketing is greatly dependent on creative "AEIOU" people:
Artists
Entrepreneurs
Intelligensia
Outdoor-oriented
Unusual

Such people are great potential drivers for regional growth, and their personal requirements can be quite simple. More places should put energy & resources into attracting such people. But because decisionmaking bureaucrats are often very different types of people from AEIOU types, they're instead carefully & officially overlooked or ignored.

In other words, while communities need clever & creative people (by definition, the unorthodox) to supply novel ideas and generate future-oriented jobs, shortsighted functionaries actively stifle such potential impact. Look for places actively encouraging the AEIOU - those places promise future growth.

Worse Murder

A US bureaucrat identifies a dangerous person and decides he (or she) should be killed. Which now is worse?

1) An assassin paid by the USA infiltrates the target's neighborhood and suddenly kills the target.

( alternately: )

2) The USA uses an aerial drone to bomb the target's home, killing the target, and others in the home, and also some neighbors.

Why should either option be OK?
Perhaps both are being used now... 

Beef Jerky?

I ain't saying "real American men" should enjoy chompin' beef jerky - that's because the swill sold as beef jerky is often a poor product better fed to lab rats or toothless dogs.

It's become necessary to look carefully for the modifier "solid strips of beef" -- or you'll be sold flaked, chopped formed dry hamburgers full of chemicals.
I bought Matador Beef Jerky, and it claimed:
POWERFULLY  BOLD  FLAVOR
UNIQUELY  TENDER  BITE

Opinion:  Give that shit a miss. Owned by Frito-Lay, the processed product tastes like chemicals. It's difficult to see through the plastic packaging window, and only very careful scrutiny reveals the product is dried hamburger, shaped and roughened to imitate jerky. It has 15 ingredients. There's no mention on the package it's reconstituted (formed from ground bits). I'd call it dog treats, but any good hound deserves better.

This firm is shameless. See their Facebook whoring:
https://www.facebook.com/matador

Big Food Inc. now calls dried hamburger chunks "jerky"

In the olde West, they'd be shot.

Jerky flimflam artists -- you are jerks.

Buyer Beware.

Raise Your Hand

Text on a bourgeois chamber pot

 ...  pre-revolutionary France

         by    Genki

Raise Your Hand

Raise not your hand in Fury

With blood rushing to your head

You'll be sure to face a jury

Laced with lackeys to the dead.

Raise not your hand to Banish

Rape & plunder by the rich

Mindless greed will never vanish

Interject a sales pitch.

Raise your hand when you've an answer

Raise your hand to show a way

Can assassins excise cancer?

Loving kindness: live today.