Kiera Wilmot Story. Why has Mass Media neglected it?

The story of Kiera Wilmot seems to have taken the Internet by storm. However, mainstream media and I include NPR in this, have ignored this pressing issue. The pressing issue is racial and also has a lot to do with common sense and fear. It is racial because Kiera Wilmot, a 16 year black honor student of Bartow Florida, was taken in by Bartow Police and may very well be charged with a felony for doing something that most aspiring scientists do: she blew something up. Well, actually in the scheme of things it looked more like something George Lucas or Steven Spielberg might do for one of their special effects segments. Kiera could produce the next great Sci-fi epic for all we know. Mixing drain cleaner and aluminum Bucky balls in a plastic bottle is going to produce nothing more than a smallish pop and some smoke. Is this story going to go up in a puff of smoke? At present, Kiera's future as a scientist or great film director is in doubt. There's no reason, given her stated intent, to expel her from school or worse, charge her with a felony. This was hardly a terroristic act and I do wish 9/11 and now the Boston Bombings wouldn't be used as an excuse to violate the rights of innocent citizens. That only cheapens the lives that have been lost tragically in those events. What is more a wonderment is why mainstream media has yet to cover this story. It has all the drama of an Afterschool Special combined with the societal issues surrounding race, gender, age and the problems with the education system in the United States. Yes, the local Florida papers have covered it, but they would. A petition from Change.org has, at the last time I checked, garnered more than 150,000 signatures since Wednesday when I signed it. http://www.change.org/petitions/state-attorney-jerry-hill-drop-charges-against-kiera-wilmot NPR, of all the media outlets, I would presume to be interested in this story. Its storied "Liberal" image would make at a natural venue for this very human story. Why have they ignored it? Shame on them!

Everything Or Less and it's mostly less service in Retail

Everything Or Less, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Retail is funny because on one hand the Customer must be served. On the other hand, production goals, whatever those may be, preclude the customer from getting the best of service. Employees of retail and any customer service related business are forced to meet ever changing "Performance Metrics". To meet these and keep their jobs many employees are forced to cut corners and do low quality work. Management tends to look the other way because production goals will then be met.
If you don't cut corners and try to do a good job both for the store and for the customer, you are deemed "slow" and may not retain that retail job for very long. So instead, you do things on the quick-quick, not taking the time to do the job right, cut off the customer on the phone or in the aisle and hope to see another day and another tiny paycheck.
True, there isn't much profit in retail. Markup on most items for the store is about 5 percent. There is a lot of competition for that small piece of the pie. Managers get a bonus at the end of the year for meeting production goals. This is an incentive to sharp practice. Not all retail is Wal-Mart, where in some stores managers force workers to work off the clock so they can meet those production goals. There have been about 10 lawsuits on that matter in the past 10 years. Nonetheless it's mostly less that the customer gets. It's less service, less information and less quality products. Am I being too unreasonable to want everything and more?

Via Flickr:
Everything Is Less Than Zero.
Hey! Hey, hey!

Blasting Away At Madness: This Shopping Cart Is In The Dumps

Blasting Away At Madness: This Shopping Cart Is In The Dumps

This Shopping Cart Is In The Dumps

This Shopping Cart Is In The Dumps, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

The NYPD have nothing better to do than harass a photographer taking photographs of this trashed shopping cart. It's been sitting on this grassy patch on East 12th Street in Brooklyn for the past 4 days. It's filled with materials probably discarded by one of the disreputable and fly by night building contractors that work in my neighborhood. Office Sukhu was attempting to intimidate me today, implying that I was responsible for dumping this cart here. What right have the cops to ask me questions as to why I'm photographing anything that is on a public street? They have no right to harass me, ask for ID or make other assumptions about my character. Office Sukhu even questioned whether I belonged here in New York City. "You don't sound like you live here in New York" he said. I told him I was doing my art and he used that statement to imply that I was the one who dumped these materials. He and FOUR other officers from the 61st Precinct surrounded me and threatened me with a summons. The kind of cavalier attitude and leading conversation I suffered under their scrutiny has reinforced my negative opinion of the NYPD. There is no "Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect" coming from the NYPD anymore. I doubt there ever has been any but now even more so since Bloomberg declared the NYPD to be his "Army".

Google represses Flickr Images!

The Very First Slinky, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Google has relegated images from Flickr to the bottom pages if they are to be seen at all from a Flickr image search. If a search is done for "popular toys of the 1940s" on Bing the image above will be shown. Not so for a Google image search where the image does not show up at all. See the differences here:

The Bing Image Search:

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=popular+toys+of+the+1940s#x0y5814

The google image search:

http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1156&bih=716&q=popular+toys+of+the+1940s&gbv=2&oq=popular+toys+of+the+1940s&aq=f&aqi=g-S1&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=3029l3029l0l4592l1l1l0l0l0l0l193l193l0.1l1l0

I thought I was mistaken the first time but this has happened more than once. Time to send Google a message loud and clear. Stop manipulating web search searches for your own profit. Google doesn't like Yahoo!, which owns flickr, so they will use their misbegotten power over the Internet to wield undue influence on the websites we go to.



Via Flickr:
The toy was invented and developed by naval engineer Richard James in the early 1940s and demonstrated at Gimbels department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in November 1945

Slinky Jingle:

What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing!
Everyone knows it's Slinky.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky, it's fun, it's a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky, it's fun, it's a wonderful toy.
It's fun for a girl or a boy.

Where Were You On September 11?

Where Were You On September 11?, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Where Were You On September 11? So Osama Bin Laden is dead. Long awaited relief is there for some but others may only be glad that the Royal Wedding and Lindsay Lohan's legal foibles are off the front page. Yet this story has filled the entire newscast of NPRs morning edition to the loss of anything else. The alien invaders from the Antares Nebula could invade the Earth and I doubt anyone would notice.

Via Flickr:
Where were you on September 11th?

05/1/11 is May day, a day to celebrate. Osama Bin Laden is dead! Can the victims rest a little easier tonight? I doubt it. They still have loved ones to mourn. Yet a great source of evil has finally been brought to justice by the US Navy Seals.

General Electric: Greedy Enough?

General Electric: Greedy Enough?, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Tax Day has been postponed for the rest of us until April 18th, 2011 but for General Electric, with its offshore accounts and numerous tax loopholes it has been postponed forever. Shouldn't even the members of the Tea Party be clamoring for them to pay their fair share? According to the NY Times G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html

General could do a great service to millions of Americans suffering from unemployment, underemployment and threat of death due to inadequate healthcare. They could put BILLIONS into the coffers of the US treasury to provide much needed relief. Some say they shouldn't be obligated to provide anything for their fellow Americans. Should we rely upon their generosity when Corporations such as GE have proven otherwise? The blood of Millions of Americans is on their hands. It's time for a speedy trial of these tax evading Corporations.

Michael Moore and MoveOn certainly know this needs to be done.

www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/tax-day-events_b_849...

The New American Taliban: The Republican Party

The New American Taliban: The Republican Party, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

It's incredible that even Republican Party Members don't agree with their own "leaders". Meanwhile on the Hill the Repukelicans continue to obstruct Obama and a certain governor from Wisconsin wants to take rights away from workers. The Republican party is all about the need of the wealthy to live off our backs in perpetuity. Why are the states all in seven digit budget deficits? Because the wealthy have not been paying their fair share for a long time. It's time to give up the fallacy that giving them tax breaks will somehow encourage them to hire and pay a decent wage. It's not going to happen. How else did they all get to accumulate about 70 percent of the wealth?
See this enlightening blog entry for further revelations:

The Rag Blog: Ted McLaughlin : Americans Don't Want to Gamble With Social Security

Rep. Grayson: "I Apologize To The Dead For This Holocaust"

Let's not ever forget during this time when the Repukelicans want to repeal the Health Care law what their intentions are for the American People. They want us to die and end the surplus population. They want to continue to receive Government Health Care benefits for themselves and care nothing at all for the suffering of the rest of us. I call for recall elections of all these filthy, dirty rotten scoundrels. Barring that I call for the repeal of all their benefits so they can finally see what it's like to live with no health insurance and the outrageous price of medical care.

There's No Escape, Number 43

There's No Escape, Number 43, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

King George has been deposed and reduced to a number.
No Secret Agent Man he is.

George W. Bush is doing the same thing that Richard Nixon did after he left the White House. No doubt he's waited two years to build up steam and gather all his PR wonks to come up with a strategy to put a positive front for his pathetic presidential years. He's attempting to lay claim to efforts to combat AIDS in Africa.

Richard Nixon may have done a number of good things during his Administration such as creating the EPA. This was done only after charges of creating "ceremonial" bodies such a Cabinet level Environmental Control Council and a Citizens Advisory Committee. I'd say though that Nixon reacted more responsibly to his critics than George Dubya did during his administration.

Here is the history of the Birth of the EPA:
http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/epa/15c.htm

What is George W going to do now I wonder? He's no doubt been engaging pollsters over the past few years to gauge the best possible spin tactics. This is what Nixon did in the Eighties. I know that personally as I was working as a messenger at that time and delivered a package from the Lou Harris polling organization to his office in the Federal Building in NYC.

Unfortunately the American People have such a short attention span that they forget all the murders done in the two wars that were started on his watch. Those who blame Barack Obama for all the sins of the previous administration have failed to learn or understand recent history.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/30/AR2010113005167.html

I'm Fed UP And I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore

I'm Fed UP And I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Ignorant people voted in the Repukelicans. Now we all have to suffer as a result. The Democrats couldn't get any change through Congress because of the stated intention of the Republicans to declare war on President Barack Obama. The racists and deluded self centered know nothings have taken over this country. We can look forward to Business as Usual in Washington and in the Corporate world. Big Oil and Finance paid for the "victory" of the Repukes and now we will be paying for tax cuts for the rich for the next few decades.

The attempts by President Barack Obama and other Democrats to communicate what the aims of the Republican party are fell on deaf ears this past week. There is no changing the minds of the mindless. If some people would take off their earbuds in the Ipods and Iphones maybe they would realize what's really going on. But they won't. That's how Corporate America wants it to be. We are being fed a diet of Bread & Circuses to keep us down and keep us inactive in our system of Governance.

Classified Ads Found Wanting

I recently attempted to apply to the following posted job on Monster for a "General Office Specialist":

General Office Specialist in New York, NY, 10014
Spherion is a staffing and recruitment industry leader with thousands of satisfied clients nationwide. We offer the successful candidate the opportunity to work for our clients in either full-time or temporary positions. We pride ourselves on our strong commitment to client satisfaction, and our focus on helping our employees find their next job.
Spherion is currently working with a dynamic Fortune 500 organization in efforts to assist them in finding a General Office Specialist in New York, NY, 10014!!!

This is a 1 Week Temporary Contract Assignment

Pay for this position is 11.44/hr

Hiring ASAP

If you feel you meet the qualifications send me your resume to AdelineDorsainvil@spherion.com


Job Description
This position requires binding using GBC Equipment

Duties
• Ability to lift and move less than 50 pounds
• Point of contact to receive, review and electronically log customer jobs
• Operate standard finishing equipment (e.g. paper cutters, inserters, laminating, and hole punchers); including pull and pack for packaged materials (basic fulfillment)
• Operate basic office equipment (printer, copier, fax)
• Apply asset tags to office equipment and update database
• Manually track move/add/change of office equipment assets at customer accounts
• Clean and maintain office equipment when necessary (key operator)
• Process and distribute incoming and outgoing faxes, log for billing purposes
• Log incoming packages and other accountable mail
• Process basic forms and update information using a PC
• Wrap, pack, label, and ship finished product
• Deliver finished product to client site(s)
• Pick up and delivery of mail to designated recipients
• Tracking and coordinating equipment moves within assigned customer location
• Collect and submit meter reads
• Maintain appropriate supply inventory, distribute supplies as required, and log for billing purposes

Required Skills

• Pay great attention to detail
• Listen, understand & communicate effectively
• Basic Computer Skills Functional knowledge of PC (keyboard functions, mouse, etc) and Microsoft Office. Send and receive emails, find, open and save documents and files, perform data entry, use internet explorer for web browsing, send documents to preconfigured printer.
• Basic Math skills (division, multiplication, percentages)
• Professional interaction with client and work associates.

Education

• High School Diploma or experience


Qualifications

• Experience in a Customer Service environment (minimum 1 year)
• Possess strong work ethic
• Exceptional customer service skills- verbal, written, and in person
• Very Reliable
• Able to lift 50Ibs
• Have reliable transportation
• Team player



If you feel you have the right qualifications, please email me a Word copy of your resume directly to AdelineDorsainvil@spherion.com
! INCLUDE JOB TITLE AND LOCATION IN THE SUBJECT LINE!

AdelineDorsainvil@spherion.com

Apply today and discover what thousands of other professionals have—Spherion is the right choice to advance your career!
Spherion Professional Services is a core business unit of Spherion Corporation (NYSE:SFN), which provides recruitment, outsourcing and technology services. Founded in 1946, with operations in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific, Spherion helps companies efficiently plan, acquire and optimize talent to improve their bottom line. Visit the Company’s Web site at www.spherion.com
EOE M/F/D/V

The Job isn't even for a "General Office Specialist". It's for some low level, one off position to work for some unnamed "Dynamic Fortune 500 Company" to assist them in finding such an individual. The job description looks like someone got happy with the right click button. Cutting and pasting all sorts of entries into a job description doesn't impress me. It's deceptive and this is the state of affairs when it comes to Help Wanted advertising in this so called "Employers Market" economy.

What's going on here? Who gets a nice weekly paycheck to produce this deceptive drivel? I could do their job in a heartbeat.

On The 280th Day I Went To The Library Not The Liberry

On The 280th Day I Went To The Library Not The Liberry, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

The Brooklyn Public Library at Kings Highway and Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn recently underwent a major renovation. Now it is a technological showpiece for what may be the library of the next half century. They have automated checkout machines, drop boxes for returned books and media, a somewhat Bauhaus style architecture on one side and, of all things, a QUIET reading room. Silence is one thing that has become a thing of the past at the Brooklyn Public Library where all sorts of chaos and noise is tolerated or not addressed anymore. One librarian told me that they are not allowed to tell patrons to be quiet anymore. What or who are the administrators of the Brooklyn Public Library afraid of?

The best information I got as to why most of the libraries are not ALLOWED to be quiet anymore came from a security guard. If you ever want accurate information about what's going on in the libraries just ask Security. It seems the paradigm of the Brooklyn Public Library is now one of "reaching out to the community" and making the library a social gathering place. So the actual purpose of a library ie: as a place for education and study, is no longer viable.

Apple Iphone 4: Try And Catch The Rainbow

Apple Iphone 4: Try And Catch The Rainbow, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Radio Shack and Apple want us all to be so desperate to get the Iphone 4 that they've manufactured scarcity for the product. Hence the long lines in front of the Apple stores and Radio Shack for this much sought after commodity. I pity the fools who are up at 7am to line up and present this picture of psuedo popularity of the Iphone. When are people going to realize they've been duped once again?

So if people step up to a Radio Shack today or tomorrow they're going to see this and go into panic mode. It's a setup folks. Apple has made certain that scarcity proves demand thus playing a psychological game with us to promote their product. I for one could care less to own an I-Phone. I've used my friends a couple of times and both she and I find it quite annoying how it is very easy to make a mistake and touch the wrong area of the screen. Touch screens are not all they're cracked up to be.

The fact that AT&T is the sole carrier for the I-Phone is also worrisome and people don't realize just how bad the service is. They can't even provide a proper 3G network much less reduce the number of dropped calls on the network. Verizon is no better with their customer service being as bad or worse than Dell computers. That company has an exclusive contract to be the carrier of the Goober....er Gooble....er...Google phone. Is this all the makings of a very bad trend?

British Petroleum Has A Tarnished Image

British Petroleum Has A Tarnished Image, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

The oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico could have been prevented.

www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/05/04/04greenwire-warnings-on-...

Will you look at the price of gas? It's going up again and is the media talking about it?

I considered a boycott of BP gas stations however BP doesn't own most of them and are planning to sell of most of them. The people that work for BP branded gas stations need to feed their families too. A boycott would not hurt BP in the least. A call to major investors to divest themselves of BP stock may be more effective in sending a strong message of disapproval to British Petroleum.

Suck It Up BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg!

Suck It Up BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg!, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

British Petroleum has a plan to use a 6 inch pipe to suck up the oil gushing from their oil rig in the Gulf Of Mexico. Do they really believe they can get all the oil that's underground? BP refuses to also verify how much oil is contained in this well. How could they not know. When an oil researcges a drill site don't they have agood idea of huw much oil they can pull out of it?

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126809525

I Went To The Bombing In Times Square And All I Got Was This Filthy Stinking T-Shirt

I Went To The Bombing In Times Square And All I Got Was This Filthy Stinking T-Shirt, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

t was a T-Shirt Vendor and a Vietnam Veteran was alerted the NYPD of the danger posed by the SUV that nearly caused great loss of life in Times Square over the weekend. It makes me want to go there and give him some business maybe? I think it quite possible that some enterprising person would come up with such a promotional gimmick. It might as well be me.

Faisel Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani American, is being held responsible for this attempted bombing of the tourist mecca. He allegedly has admitted to the crime. As it turns out he was on a watch list and thankfully due to alert police officers and airport officials was captured before his plane took off.

I do wonder how this could have come about. Shahzad bought the car through a seller on Craigslist. I find it incredulous that she didn't question his motives when he purchased the car with wads of cash and no need for papers. This is what Americans will do when it comes to money these days.

So Far Today Flickr Gives Us More Blue Pie

So Far Today Flickr Gives Us More Blue Pie, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

This is Flickr Staffs latest brilliant idea for Stats. They give us a multiple shade of Blue Pie Chart. Wow! Great Capture Flickr Staff! A 12 year old could do better than this. Is this all we get after a year of waiting for some improvement to Flickr Stats. Stupidity reigns at Flickr HQ. Do they really think they can impress any of us including the newbies?
I've also noticed that on your main stats page one see the legend for the various entries in little blue boxes but NO pie chart?

We all know what PIE means on Flickr.
It traditionally means "end of discussion". It's real an old skool term which Flickr Staff has obviously forgotten. Is this really essential to the core flickr experience? This is what they get paid for to do. This comes from people who like to play games with big plastic inflatables all day long, put terms like "flickry goodness" and "Bonk!" into messages to flickr members. They insult us with this piss poor effort.
Nuff said.

iSpud on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

iSpud on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

New Product From Apple? How many calories...er hours of battery life will it have I wonder.

Walgreens Is Buying Duane Reade!

Invasion Of The Walgreens In Brooklyn, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Apparently the deal is in the works for Wal-Greens to buy up all the Duane Reade stores by summers end. There is little enough competition between these drug store chains as it is now prices will only go higher as a result. I've never cared much for Duane Greed and Walgreens does have competitive prices. However without DG around to match and beat will Walgreens decide to up the ante even further?

Pretty soon the only chains remaining on the Planet will be Walgreens and Wal-Mart. The economy and jobs prospects for the next year or so are dismal enough. Now we will literally have our backs to the wall with these two giants of the "Wal" big box store set to be the only possible retail employers and sources for every day items. Anti-Trust laws seem to have taken a back seat to the powers these giants wield.

Update: Apparently the current Duane Reades are going to remain as Duane Reade stores. I can't imagine that making much sense. How can they even be competitive when they are owned by the same company? That would be like Burger King and McDonalds being on the same block and owned by Wal-Mart. Maybe they are?