Category Archives: Social

Attitudes & behaviors in society; looking at the past, present, and future characteristics among people.

Logic, Social

tan(013) – We need a Transportation Social Sheriff

Leave a comment


Designed by Tooaya

tan(013) – Transportation Social Sheriff

lost drivers, stand right & walk left, staying in one’s blindspot

Preamble: What a way to start off October with a rant, but there is no better way as many of you lame drivers and subway riders have been singing, dancing, in your own little world with no regard for others, listen up!

Lost Drivers

Tourism is good for all cities, it boosts the local economy, trade, etc. But if your from out of town, and you may not be familiar with the city, don’t drive like you are the only one on the road – at your slow turtle pace. There are certain areas of a city that are shown to have a bunch of slow drivers, and higher accident rates: specifically any landmarks or the downtown city centre, and around the airport. I understand that you are looking for some street, but going considerably below the speed limit does not only put yourself at risk, but also other drivers


Designed by Acid Pro Studio

Stand Right, Walk Left

I’m sure all my subway riders will relate to this one. The odd time I am compelled to use public transportation over driving my own car as to save commute time or to avoid expensive parking rates. On the escalator’s in the subway stations, they have a general rule for the passengers; ‘Stand right, or walk left’, which is pretty much saying ‘be courteous of others who are in a rush’. Unfortunately, this moral decency and respect for your fellow man usually does not translate to all members of society as during rush hour, you will have people standing in the left side of the escalator as they are either completely oblivious, talking with a friend, or minding their own business. When an event like this happens, most people will bite their tongue – choosing to express their disdain with their facial expressions. I on the otherhand will walk toward the insensitive lame with a polite excuse me, positioning my arm to connect with their back …


Designed by Fallakka

Staying in One’s Blindspot

For my drivers out there, don’t you dislike when another driver in the lane beside you refuses to pass you or slow down considerably enough so that they get out of your blindspot. We all know how dangerous it can be if one doesn’t know that a car is in their blindspot; it can cause serious accidents. So, please, don’t remain in someone’s blindspot, either speed up and pass them, or slow down and cruise so that the car can see you. Its common courtesy people, let’s follow it.

.:: LiBM ::.

Social, sports, Style

Defining an Era or Error: Air Force 1’s and the Pump

Leave a comment

Defining an Era or Error: The Pump & Air Force 1

I had neither shoes while I was growing up, but the impact on hip-hop/urban culture was definitely felt as if you were a kid, and somehow you convinced your mom to buy you a pair of these over-priced sneakers – you were the man. Well, at least you better be, because from coast-to-coast, nation-to-nation, youth were being jumped/jacked/robbed of their footwear. Thus, when something as an increase in youth robberies; related to a particular shoe, then the shoe reflects a definitive era in our society, and becomes a part of our collective culture… anyhow, enough of the preamble, onwards to pics and video:

Reebok the Pump

The original Reebok Pump was made as a collaboration between Reebok’s Paul Litchfield and industrial design firm Design Continuum. It was released in 1989, as a basketball high-top shoe. It was the first shoe to have an internal inflation mechanism that regulated a unique fitting cushion in the upper tongue. The shoe was quite expensive compared to other retail athletic shoes at the time. It became something of a status symbol on urban basketball courts and eventually in suburban high schools.

After the success of the basketball shoe, Reebok designed pump shoes for football, tennis, and track. Some models used a standard CO2 cylinder instead of the pump for weight considerations.

Reebok Pump Commercial from Steve Fuller on Vimeo.

Air Force 1

The Air Force 1 was produced in 1982 and discontinued the following year. It was re-released in 1986 with the modern italic Nike logo with a Swoosh on the bottom on the back of the shoe. Little has changed to the Air Force One since its creation in 1982, although the original stitching on the side panels is no longer present in modern versions of the shoe. Since then, over 1,700 color variations have been produced, bringing in an estimated 800 million USD/year in revenue. The selling of the Air Force Ones online by certain retailers is prohibited by Nike who has restricted supply of the sneaker.

Nike Air Force 1 – Crafting Perfect One from tenk on Vimeo.

Obviously Nike won this battle as the ‘Air Force 1’ shoe remains a cultural staple as many rappers have referenced and even made songs about it (i.e. Nelly and his shameless song ‘Air Force 1). The Reebok Pump did not have the longevity as the Air Force One did, but it still remains as an advancement in shoe technology …. whatever that is worth.

.:: LiBM ::.

sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_1_(shoe)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reebok_Pump

Love, Social

Gross National Happiness for Women

Leave a comment

GNP for Women

How to increase the Gross National Happiness for Women

Gross National Happiness (GNH) is an attempt to define quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product.  The term was coined in 1972 by Bhutan’s former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who has opened up Bhutan to the age of modernization, soon after the demise of his father King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk. It signaled his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan’s unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. Like many moral goals, it is somewhat easier to state than to define. Nonetheless, it serves as a unifying vision for the Five Year planning process and all the derived planning documents that guide the economic and development plans of the country. 

After reading this I thought of a great correlational study; can the GNH apply to Women?  Women always complain about not being happy, not getting their way, so maybe if they followed (or more importantly, their man followed) some of the GNH 7 steps to happiness – modified for women, then women may achieve a high GNH.  But knowing women, they probably would never be satisfied.

7 Steps for Happiness

Now there are 7 steps that would lead women to overall good GNP; some of the steps are adapted/modified from Med Jones (2006):
1. Economic Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of economic metrics such as consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio and income distribution
(Women’s Interpretation: you better not be sitting around the house and not pulling in any income – you have to support her shoe habit, because she can’t dare rock last year’s shoe in this season)

2. Environmental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of environmental metrics such as pollution, noise and traffic
(Women’s Interpretation: stop littering and care about the environment; more importantly stop leaving your ish all over the house)

3. Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics such as severe illnesses
(Women’s Interpretation: don’t get out of shape and gain a pot/beer belly – or I will start singing Beyonce’s ‘Irreplaceable’)

4. Mental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline of psychotherapy patients
(Women’s Interpretation: if you want to sleep comfortably, watch football on Sunday’s, then do what I say – or I will raise hell)

5. Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints and lawsuits
(Women’s Interpretation: he better not be flirting around with that bimbo receptionist at work, as she may need fully functioning tires to get home)

6. Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety, divorce rates, complaints of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates
(Women’s Interpretation: you can’t always be hanging out with your friends doing a whole bunch of nothing)

7. Political Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts.
(Women’s Interpretation: get involved in politics and abandon the “I don’t care” approach, if you need help, then believe what I believe in)

In summation, the GNH for women can probably be paraphrased, summed up, described as ‘Just Listen to her for peace’, or she will rip you to ‘pieces’ and/or will never allow you any ‘peace’ and quiet. And of course shoes, lots of shoes.

Just to show you that the whole concept of GNP is not a joke, check the following video:

LMC presents: Ann Muller & Gross National Happiness from another being creative on Vimeo.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness

Social, Technology

Defining an Era or Error: Pagers

1 Comment

The Pagers

Still has a use after the cellphone

A pager (sometimes called a page, beeper or bleep) is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then expected to call. Alphanumeric pagers are available, as well as two-way pagers that have the ability to send and receive email, numeric pages, and SMS messages.

Until the popular adoption of mobile phones in the 1990s, pagers fulfilled the role of common personal and mobile communications. Today, pagers mainly support the “critical messaging” markets. They are the ideal solution for very quick, very reliable personal or group messaging. Unlike many other mobile communications networks, they continue to work in times of emergency or disaster as they do not suffer from network overload as has been proven many times (September 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina). For this reason, they are still very popular with emergency service personnel, medical personnel, and information technology support staff.

If you still have a pager now, hopefully you are in some medical profession because it will be very hard to find a payphone.

.:: LiBM :::

Social, Technology

Birds faster than ADSL while AI lacks motivation

Leave a comment

Birds faster than ADSL while AI lacks motivation – Nerban’s week in tech Sept 09

Even though there are no Apple related stories, the pic works perfectly, under any circumstance.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8248056.stm

A Durban IT company pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country’s biggest web firm, Telkom. Winston the pigeon took two hours to carry the data 60 miles – in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data. 
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/09/09/1154200/Why-Motivation-Is-Key-For-Artificial-Intelligence
Why motivation is key for artificial intelligence; and why, according to this article, there will be no need to be scared that Artificial Intelligence Robots will overtake the Human Race, as they will lack the motivation to do so ….
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/6147668/Facebook-enhances-intelligence-but-Twitter-diminishes-it-claims-psychologist.html
Facebook ‘enhances intelligence’ but Twitter ‘diminishes it’, claims psychologist.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10344384-1.html
Samsung netbook to have 11 hour battery life – for all your limited computing uses. I would like to see something similar for a Macbook Pro.
 

 

Hip-Hop, Social, Style, Swag

Hipsters: Then and Now

Leave a comment

 

The Hipsters

Past and Present … Presently ….

Here is a bit of a History Lesson of where this ‘Hipster’ Fashion and culture has come from … and SHOCKINGLY, it comes from the Black Community … (that is sarcasm)

Birth of ….


1940s-1950s

“Hipster” derives from the slang “hip” or “hep,” which are derived from the earlier slang “hop” for opium. The first dictionary to list the word is the short glossary “For Characters Who Don’t Dig Jive Talk,” which was included with Harry Gibson’s 1944 album, Boogie Woogie In Blue. The entry for “hipsters” defined it as “characters who like hot jazz.” The 1959 book Jazz Scene by Eric Hobsbawm (using the pen name Francis Newton) describes hipsters using their own language, “jive-talk or hipster-talk,” he writes “is an argot or cant designed to set the group apart from outsiders.” Hipster was also used in a different context at about the same time by Jack Kerouac in describing his vision of the Beat Generation. Along with Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac described 1940s hipsters “rising and roaming America,… bumming and hitchhiking everywhere… [as] characters of a special spirituality.”

 

Mutation of …


1990s and 2000s
In the late 1990s, the term started to be used in new, sometimes mutually exclusive ways. In some circles it became a blanket description for middle class and upper class young people associated with alternative culture, particularly alternative music, independent rock, alternative hip-hop, independent film and a lifestyle revolving around thrift store shopping, eating organic, locally grown, vegetarian, and/or vegan food, drinking local beer (or even brewing their own), listening to public radio, and riding fixed-gear bicycles.

In 2003 Robert Lanham’s satirical book The Hipster Handbook described hipsters as young people with “… mop-top haircuts, swinging retro pocketbooks, talking on cell phones, smoking European cigarettes,… strutting in platform shoes with a biography of Che Guevara sticking out of their bags.” Hipsters are considered apathetic, pretentious, and self-entitled by other, often marginalized sectors of society they live amongst, including previous generations of bohemian and/or “counter-culture” artists and thinkers as well as poor neighborhoods of color.

Gavin Mueller’s article “Hipster or Not?” for Stylus Magazine (2004) wrote that “… hipster lifestyle is reduced to a pose, a pretense” which involves”…”a hipster costume, worn to appear “cool”, a liberal arts education, and so on. He claims that the term “‘Hipster’ is far too vague and broad to have any semblance of essential meaning”.

 

Current … Hipster Rap

In 2008, Utne Reader magazine writer Jake Mohan described “hipster rap,” “as loosely defined by the Chicago Reader, consists of the most recent crop of MCs and DJs who flout conventional hip-hop fashions, eschewing baggy clothes and gold chains for tight jeans, big sunglasses, the occasional keffiyeh, and other trappings of the hipster lifestyle.” He notes that the “old-school hip-hop website Unkut, and Jersey City rapper Mazzi” have criticized mainstream rappers who they deem to be poseurs or “… fags for copping the metrosexual appearances of hipster fashion.” Prefix Mag writer Ethan Stanislawski argues that there are racial elements to the rise of hipster rap. He claims that there “…have been a slew of angry retorts to the rise of hipster rap,” which he says can be summed up as “white kids want the funky otherness of hip-hop… without all the scary black people.”

 

Comment:

I don’t mind the Hipster fashions for the women, but when the Hipster fashions for the men look like the same fashions for the women; then there is a problem – loosen up the jeans fellas.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_(1940s_subculture)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_(contemporary_subculture)

Economics, Popular Culture, Social, Technology

Buy yourself a Personality: MacBook

Leave a comment

Associative Qualities of the Mac Culture

Buy Yourself a Personality: MacBook

In my little opinion, Macbooks are not much superior to Windows and/or Linux based computing systems. The price of a Macbook can range anywhere from the $1300-$2500 and they are only optimized for their performance in memory intensive usages such as audio recording/editing and video rendering. If you are even doing Photoshop image manipulations, and you are not working with RAW files, then you do not necessarily need a MacBook. If you are reading this, and don’t even know what Final Cut, Compressor, Avid, Motion 4, Pro Tools, then you are one of those people that I like to call ‘Buying a personality’.

Cool & Trendy Factor
There is some statistic that states that out of the Personal Computing market, Apple has like less than 5% of the market share; so having a MacBook will automatically make you stand out from the pack; combine with Apple’s sleek and stylish design, people will gravitate and ask you asinine questions about your MacBook. Which essentially forces the individual to become a ‘Mac Ambassador’; someone that can give advice and their opinion about their Mac experience – and resoundingly enough it will bend toward the positive. Thus, when people become the Mac Ambassador they are embracing and becoming one with the ‘Mac Culture’; which can be defined as a free-spirited, creative, liberal, defying convention, eager individual – whom values his/her individuality from conformity (conformity being Windows culture). Those qualities will then be expressed in their clothing and swag; which is perfectly captured in the popular ‘”I’m a Mac, he’s a PC” ads.

Now, this isn’t ‘Mac resentment’ or ‘hate’; the Apple OS is a unique user experience that in my opinion is slightly better than Windows, but the cost differential is not worth it if you plan on using iMovie or iLife, or watching video on YouTube. You have to give Apple some props though, they have done a creative maeouver in giving the perception that when you buy a MacBook – which is essentially a plethora of computer parts made by other manufacturers (just like Windows machines) – you are not only being a computer, but you are buying a lifestyle. And that ‘lifestyle’ is priceless.

.:: LiBM ::.

Social, Technology

Printable Batteries for CERN monitored by Nissan – Nerban’s week in tech Aug 09

Leave a comment


Designed by jjar01

Nerban’s week in tech August 2009

Some items from the world wide web concerning technology and our social habits.

Printable Batteries Should Arrive Next Year

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/08/09/0049214/Printable-Batteries-Should-Arrive-Next-Year
– this will make those annoying greeting cards with the loud sounds and bad 80’s music to last even longer

Toshiba signs up for Blu-ray

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10306235-93.html
– this must be a big blow to Toshiba’s psyce; if you didn’t know, Toshiba was behind the now defunct HD-DVD format which went head-to-head with Sony’s Blu-Ray format … of course, Blu-Ray won the format in 2008, and takes Toshiba well over a year to start producing compatible DVD players.

CERN’s collider to get ’safe’ start in November

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10305480-76.html
– the end of the world is imminent … beginning in November when Scientists will engulf the world with their particle collider

Nissan will sell you its new electric car early — but you have to agree to be monitored.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20090806/CARNEWS/908069996
– An electric car that you buy, but that will be watched

No more perks: Coffee shops pull the plug on laptop users

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124950421033208823.html
– Those cheap fake wannabee laptop users in the coffee shops that take up wi-fi and don’t buy scones

Apple tried to silence owner of exploding iPod with gagging order

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article6736587.ece
– Apple getting their ‘gangsta on’ over their most explosive iPod ever

.:: LiBM ::.

Social, Technology

Defining an Era or Error: The Walkman

Leave a comment

Defining an Era or Error: The Walkman

A look at the first portable music device

The Walkman was an essential item to have growing up in the 80’s and 90’s; it was today’s equivalent to the iPod. The Walkman allowed one to bring their music with them in a handy portable device, as the popular format of the day was the tape cassette. The tape cassette was, and still stands as a unique format that allows for easy recording and playback. Think about it, to record music to a CD, you got to start your computer, load CD Burning program, wait for it to write – for a tape cassette, just put it into the tape player, connect to an input source, and hit record. Voila, you have an instant portable piece of music. I think that the tape cassette will be around for a few more decades as it is still useful, and since car manufacturers have only stopped building tape decks from around 2005, they will still be relevant.

A bit of history for the Father of the ‘iPod’:

Walkman is Sony’s portable audio cassette player brand, now used to market its portable audio and video players. The original Walkman introduced a change in music listening habits, allowing people to carry music with them. The device was built in 1978 by audio division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-chairman Morita, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent transpacific plane trips. The original Walkman was marketed in 1979 as the Walkman in Japan, the Soundabout in many other countries including the US, Freestyle in Sweden and the Stowaway in the UK.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman

Sony was the obvious pioneer for the portable digital music player, and I believe the brand name (Walkman) still lives on in Sony’s line of digital music players (competing with the iPod) and their partnership with Ericsson Mobility (bringing the Sony Ericsson Walkman phone). But Sony is far, far, far behind Apple’s iPod as they got on the digital music player bandwagon too late – if Sony had marketed their iconic Walkman brand as a digital music device a bit earlier, they could have maybe impacted the affect of the iPod, and garnered a greater share of the billion dollar digital music industry that Apple dominates.


I still have my Walkman, and it still works, but I mess with the iPod Touch … sorry Sony!  Another fail – as Sony is currently losing a market that they CREATED.

.:: LiBM ::.

Logic, Social, Work

tan(011) – My Intuition parks bad on the streets, sickly

Leave a comment

tan(011) – Against your Intuition, Street Parking, Sick from Work

NOT to go off on a Tangent, but …

Preamble: Without the venting of frustrations, one is destined to be a very hot pressure cooker, so let the steam go!

Against Intuition
This is a rant against myself. Against my fault for having too much faith in other people and their abilities to fulfill an order. The ordeal happened when I was renting some audio equipment for a friend’s going away party, and to make a long story short, I rented speakers and speaker cables from a local audio rental store that will go unnamed; but the customer service rep gave me incorrect speaker cables – rendering the speakers useless. Now when placing the order, I suspected that the customer service guy was a bit new and somewhat inexperienced; and at this store, it is a requirement that you know your stuff, very well. Preamble, I have rented from this store numerous of times in the past though; with no bad experiences, they have always given me the right pieces of equipment and necessary cords (I never had to check before I left the store). However this time, because of the inexperienced and uncertainty vibe that I was picking from the CSR, I wanted to do a physical check of the equipment, but I was reluctant to do so. I think my rationale for NOT checking was that if I persisted to check, that action may have been insulting to the CSR; so I was kind of being sensitive to his feelings. But, after having to drive across town and back to pick up PROPER speaker cable from my house, I will be LESS sensitive in the future

Street Parking
Pretty simple concept: if you are going to park on the street, and clearly there is enough room for two cars to park, park APPROPRIATELY. That means, consider other cars that may want to park; so that means, don’t park in the middle of the space so that only your car can fit – instead move up a bit and park so that another car can park behind you. Simple concept, yet some people have no consideration for others and will park selfishly so that no others can use the parking space. Let’s be aware people, you mofo’s aren’t the only ones out there; let’s have some thought for others. And not to digress, but this is also a gross act of laziness – especially when your girlfriend is to friggin lazy to move the car up a bit so that you can park behind her. Instead, you have to go park across the street in a private lot that is subject to parking tickets and towing … and she has the nerve to call me ‘selfish’, hopefully she isn’t living in a glass house, lol.

Sick for a Day
I hate it when you are sick for a day, and one of your fellow employees goes to your workstation to ‘see what work needs to be done’, and they completely reorganize your stuff. It’s a simple concept dumb mofo’s; leave things the way you found it. Don’t change the position of the phone, don’t move papers around to different locations, put it back the way you found it. You are not doing anyone a favor by moving stuff around dummy. Lame dummy.