The numbers on these hangers in a retail store in Brazil show in real-time the number of “likes” an outfit has received on the Facebook page of the Brazilian fashion retailer C&A.
The promotional video for the service pitches the idea like this (translated from Portuguese): “When they go clothes shopping, women always feel insecure and want a second opinion. But one second opinion is never enough. So how about finding what everyone on Facebook thinks of a particular item of clothing?” At the end, viewers are presented with an altruistic pitch: “So give ‘Likes’ to the clothes you like more and help thousands of women in their difficult mission of choosing the ideal outfit.”
Now, anyone with a smartphone could go to the store and pull up the Facebook page to find out the number of Likes that the garment has. The new hooks, however, offer that information instantly and allow for rapid comparisons. There’s a good chance that shoppers will check the comments in Facebook about the garment before buying or post a comment after they purchase it and like it.
I had no idea that in the year 2000, as Sandel notes, “a Russian rocket emblazoned with a giant Pizza Hut logo carried advertising into outer space,” or that in 2001, the British novelist Fay Weldon wrote a book commissioned by the jewelry company Bulgari and that, in exchange for payment, “the author agreed to mention Bulgari jewelry in the novel at least a dozen times.” I knew that stadiums are now named for corporations, but had no idea that now “even sliding into home is a corporate-sponsored event,” writes Sandel. “New York Life Insurance Company has a deal with 10 Major League Baseball teams that triggers a promotional plug every time a player slides safely into base. When the umpire calls the runner safe at home plate, a corporate logo appears on the television screen, and the play-by-play announcer must say, ‘Safe at home. Safe and secure. New York Life.’ “
Q: How did you learn to be a safecracker?
A: In 1978 I took a correspondence course to learn the basics of locksmithing. The ad in the Popular Mechanics classifieds said, “Be your own boss.”
The course consisted of about 70 lessons. I’d study each lesson and practice the particular skill required, like how to fit a key, lock disassembly, rekeying, etc.
Q: What does it mean to fit a key?
A: This is only one of a dozen basic locksmith skills. You insert a blank key, wiggle it while turning and the bumping action creates marks on the key blade. You file where the marks are until the key turns in the lock. It’s also known as “impressioning.”
Q: It seems like you could use this knowledge in bad ways if you wanted to.
A: Clients often ask, jokingly, whether we learn our trade in prison.
Technically, the biggest difference between what a burglar does and what I do is that the burglar wants to get in and out quickly and doesn’t care if the safe ever gets used again. I take my time because my objective is opening it with minimal damage so the owner can use it again.
A criminal safecracker also needs different knowledge and skills, beyond the technical, that I don’t have or need. I don’t need to know how to avoid leaving evidence, circumvent an alarm system, plan a get-away, or fence-stolen goods.
Earlier this week, within hours a photo taken at Xiaogan City High School in Hubei Province China was circulated all over China. In the photo some students were in class reviewing their homework. What is unusual in the picture is that more than half of the 50 or so students had an intravenous infusion bottle above their heads.
What they are injecting, collectively and following the advice of the school, are amino acids supposed to “enhance their physical fitness and replenish their energy,” so as to boost their performance in the upcoming entrance examinations for colleges.
The picture is inconceivable. In order to help pigs grow, Chinese breeders feed them with Paylean, a beta-adrenoceptor agonist drug linked to cancer and heart disease. Now to help them compete in highly competitive exams, schools and parents do not hesitate to subject their children to amino acid injections. Where is this going to end?
Seedsman Greg Schoen got the seed from Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee man, now in his 80’s, in Oklahoma. He was Greg’s “corn-teacher”. Greg was in the process of moving last year and wanted someone else to store and protect some of his seeds. He left samples of several corn varieties, including glass gem. I grew out a small handful this past summer just to see. The rest, as they say is history. I got so excited, I posted a picture on Facebook. We have never seen anything like this. Unfortunately, we did not grow out enough to sell. Look for a small amount for sale starting in August 2011.
