You have got to look at this cool post, about how tiny the Earth is in view of the universe. It ’s a great pictorial example of the perspective of the planets and stars. I’d post the photos here if I could, but I think they belong to somebody. Check it out, it’s cool!
I’ve had Entrecard on this blog for a few weeks now. I’ve also read SCADS and SCADS of posts about Entrecards– how you can pimp the system, get more credits, sell credits, fanagle the widgets, make and use plugins… blah blah blah. I’m not a big dropper for this blog, anyway. Who has all that time?! And where do people get all that time to build plugins, create complicated Top 100 Droppers Lists, and fabricate and maintain contests?!
Well, I’ve come to some conclusions of my own.
–> I will not– under no circumstances– advertise my card on a blog who dumps the widget at the bottom of their blog. That is so rude, and it just screams, “HATE ME.” So if you have your Entrecard at the bottom, or have it squeezed between those phony Entrecard images (you scheisters know who you are), kiss traffic from me good-bye.
–> There is NO EXCUSE for 0 clicks. I have spent countless credits on blogs– some as high as 600 credits per day– with ZERO return. This is uncalled for. We are supposed to do this together, right? If you are at someone’s blog and you drop your card, is it TOO HARD to click the advertisement? For Pete’s sake, you get the chance to drop another card, anyway! 0 click-thru’s is criminal in the Entrecard system. I say we start an “I Click” movement amongst us.
–> The higher the cost of the blog, the fewer the clicks. I’m not saying it’s a totally scientific conclusion, but it’s just something I have noticed. The “middle-class” blogs are the ones that give me the highest click-thru rate.
–> The best time to drop cards is between 2 and 3am. Eastern Time. I have seen more traffic when I get my widget’s face in everyone’s drop inbox then.
So before you scoffers come out of the woodwork and pick on my little blog and my scanty droppings (oo that didn’t come out right), :-p on you. Cuz I have three other blogs in the Entrecard system, and I am a top-dropper for two of them. I think I’m qualified to speak my opinion.
Thanks for listening!
Know what’s fun? Making a running start and sliding down the kitchen across the linoleum.
Just saying.
Thanks to Coffee Can Cash (my new favorite site!), I heard about free WalMart samples. Go here to see what WalMart is giving away. All you need to do is enter your mailing address and birthdate. My only regret is that the Maybelline Mineral Foundation makeup is not available online; you have to find the sample at the store. That will be like finding a needle in a haystack. :-p. But I did manage to get some Dove shampoo and conditioner and some Curel hand lotion. Try it out and see! Tip: refresh the page to see more offers.
I recently read Newton Minow’s speech, “Television and the Public Interest.” Newton Minow was FCC Chairman, and gave the speech in May 1961. It was renamed “Television and the Vast Wasteland” because that was the most memorable part of the speech. Have you ever read it? Do you read speeches? If you do not, it just may be because you watch television…
Well, the speech is very enlightening. There’s an audio version for people who can’t pay attention long enough to read all 5,417 words (if you watch television, you probably won’t get past the first 300 words). Either way, the message is very illuminating. In the speech, Minow pleads to those involved in television broadcasting to use this means of communication wisely.
Your license lets you use the public’s airwaves as trustees for 180 million Americans. The public is your beneficiary. If you want to stay on as trustees, you must deliver a decent return to the public — not only to your stockholders. So, as a representative of the public, your health and your product are among my chief concerns.
Did you know that we, the public, own our airwaves? NBC, CBS, and the others do not own it. These corporations are licensed to use our own airwaves, and these corporations are expected to use them for decent, informative, and edifying purposes. He stressed that:
1. Media corporations were catering more to their stockholders than to the public.
2. The “public interest” defined was not what the public wants, but what serves the public as a whole.
This is what Minow said 45 years ago, and his words are prophetic (but not surprisingly so):
So I have confidence in your health [the corporations’ massive profits], but not in your product. It is with this and much more in mind that I come before you today. Now what do we mean by “the public interest?” Some say the public interest is merely what interests the public. I disagree. And so does your distinguished president, Governor Collins. In a recent speech — and of course as I also told you yesterday — In a recent speech he said,
Broadcasting to serve the public interest, must have a soul and a conscience, a burning desire to excel, as well as to sell; the urge to build the character, citizenship, and intellectual stature of people, as well as to expand the gross national product. …By no means do I imply that broadcasters disregard the public interest. …But a much better job can be done, and should be done.
I could not agree more with Governor Collins. And I would add that in today’s world, with chaos in Laos and the Congo aflame, with Communist tyranny on our Caribbean doorstep, relentless pressures on our Atlantic alliance, with social and economic problems at home of the gravest nature, yes, and with the technological knowledge that makes it possible, as our President has said, not only to destroy our world but to destroy poverty around the world — in a time of peril and opportunity, the old complacent, unbalanced fare of action-adventure and situation comedies is simply not good enough.
When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.
You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you’ll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it.
Through Entrecards and other means, I’ve come across hundreds of people asking “What’s happening to our society today? It’s a wreck, and no one has any respect for anything anymore!” These things don’t happen without a cause. If you watch television addictively, you probably have no idea what I am talking about.
It used to be said that there were three great influences on a child: home, school, and church. Today, there is a fourth great influence, and you ladies and gentlemen in this room control it.
Has anyone noticed that “home” and “church” are not great influences anymore? These things have been replaced by school (especially public schooling with its emphasis on social engineering), television, and music. If you are wondering “what’s wrong” with our society, it’s because of these influences on our children. Certainly school, television, and music can have positive influences on our children (IF the media and school system decides to do so, which isn’t happening), but they should not be the only influences.
Why do you watch television? To vegetate in front of the screen after work? Is that why television was invented? Are you building a better society by this? One study says a person uses more brain cells to sleep than to watch television. Mindlessly watching the crap on the TV does have repercussions, on an individual and societal basis. Take a good, hard look at your own television habits. What good is television doing in your life?
I found this hilarious story at Live, Love, Laugh (not a blog for kids).
After being married for 44 years, I took a careful look at my wife one day and said, “Honey, 44 years ago we had a cheap apartment, a cheap car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10-inch black and white TV, but I got to sleep every night with a hot 25-year-old gal. Now, I have a $500,000.00 home, a $45,000.00 car, nice big bed and plasma screen TV, but I’m sleeping with a 65-year-old woman. It seems to me that you’re not holding up your side of things.”
Now, my wife is a very reasonable woman.
She told me to go out and find a hot 25-year-old gal, and she would make sure that I would once again be living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa bed and watching a 10-inch black and white TV.
Aren’t older women great? They really know how to solve a mid-life crisis!!
ROFL! Yep, and here’s betting the wife would have the expensive home, car, bed, and TV, AND find a handsome 25-year old husband as well. All hail the ingenuity of the older woman! lol!
Have you heard the expression “slaves to be free”? I think it’s been around since the Civil War era. Today, however, I think Americans are slaves to be slaves.
I’d heard a story a few years ago, a true story. It is a poignant picture of the state of the American culture and mind in the world. In this story, Russian and American men were working together on some state-sponsored activities in Russia (if I recall correctly, the storyteller said the two countries were working together during the early 50s, before the Space Race got heated). The men had completed their duties for the morning and had some leisure time before the next assignment. One young man recollects noticing a difference between the Russian men’s leisure activities and the American men’s activities. Overwhelmingly, the Americans were preoccupied with games, sports, and girlie magazines. The Russians were poring over books on complex mathematics and science discoveries. The young man was amazed at the difference and was not surprised when the Russians were the first in space before the Americans. Despite Russia’s crippling communist policies, the Russians are exceptional mathematicians. Look at the progress they have made with computer software, as they are the primary creators of hacker software (and I’m not talking about the “kiddie” pranks that most American teenagers do).
Looking through endless blogs thanks to Entrecards, I have had that story come back to me this week. I’ve been noticing the nationalities of the bloggers, and am starting to discern a pattern, too. What do you think? I’ve have seen that most American bloggers are discussing pornography, celebrities, and sports (or have dedicated large amounts of their content to thinking about it or posting pictures of it) while many Scandinavian bloggers discuss their environment (Scandinavians have the best photo blogs that I have seen). Filipinos discuss family– almost always marriage– or celebrities, and Canadians discuss world events like global warming, etc.
I think this casts a negative and detrimental light on America. Also, it explains why America is such a fat and lazy country. Let’s be honest, now. I love America with all my heart, but America has become so fat and lazy that all she thinks about is sex, sports, and marketing skills. Where are our great literature blogs, history blogs, science blogs? If there is any self-improvement content out there, it’s “fitness” blogging, but even those are geared so that we can look sexier– which really just goes back to the sex obsession.
And look at our politicians. They can’t even keep it zipped, even though it means their disgrace and ruining their families.
It makes me wonder, also, another thing. Why is our culture this way? Why are we in this country pumped with pornography, violence, sports, drugs, and debt until we puke? Here are some things to consider:
Anyone ever read Elders of the Protocols of Zion? Why is our culture this way, and what made it this way? I think if we continue on this path, we will no longer be free, but slaves– slaves bound to our own slavery. And what happens to those kinds of slaves?
Grow your own dope: plant a man.
All generalizations are FALSE.
A woman’s place is in the house… AND in the senate.
If you’re psychic, think honk.
Dyslexics are teeple poo.
Jack Kevorkian for White House physician.
This is so cool! It is the best idea for cars I’ve seen yet. It runs on air, and can go for 200 miles on one tank of compressed air. It can also read a speed of up to 60 miles per hour, which is much better than the 30mph cars I’ve heard about.
The creators of this video tout the air for this car as absolutely free, but I’m sure that the government will find some way to charge us for air. We all know they would charge us for the air we breathe, if they could. Enjoy the video.
