You consumers are so selfish! May 24, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in News.Tags: advertising, internet
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This story is in the BBC News today. The gist of the piece is that web users are getting more “ruthless and selfish.” Apparently the definition of “selfish” is, uh, this:
'Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave.'
I suppose this means that teenagers on MySpace are quite generous? This quote pretty much sums it up:
'Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions designed to hold their attention.'(Emphasis mine.)
So, basically, people are selfish because they aren't making it easy for advertising people to make money off of them? The sad thing is, I can actually imagine people thinking this. “Hey, they aren't giving us as much money as we want. So selfish!” And that's basically what it is. I mean, why else would someone be complaining about this? It's not like most people want people to stick around just to waste more of their bandwidth, so it must be the ad revenue they're thinking of.
I guess this strikes me as being similar to the Best Buy con. The reason they can sell that printer/camera/whatever so cheap during sales is because they know they can hook a lot of people into buying ridiculously overpriced cables or whatever (compare to, say, this). If the consumer just wants the cheap thing, they're clearly selfish for not allowing themselves to get ripped off on the cable. I guess that's true, but I'd rather be selfish than a sucker. The same thing applies here, I think. If I know what I want, why should I stick around longer just to let you selfishly and ruthlessly (did you all catch how I turned that around?) earn ad revenue on the way I waste my time online? If there's a site that I actually want to spend some time on, I will, but I don't think it would make me a better or more generous person if I stuck around for no reason.
I'll end on this note:
'Now, when people go online they know what they want and how to do it, he said.
This makes them very resistant to highlighted promotions or other editorial choices that try to distract them.'
The worst customer is a smart customer, right?
Tiger Tails, an update (with pictures!) May 19, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Food, Life.Tags: Alaska, Hostess, nostalgia, Tiger Tails
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As I said in my previous entry on Hostess Tiger Tails, I was pretty sure that I had pictures of the things lying around, as I ate them a lot during that brief period in which I lived in Alaska. I thought they might have been lost to the sands of time, but I was looking through a pile of CDs on my desk at home, and found one cryptically labeled “Movies.” Most of the disc appears to be old cereal commercials and poorly-recorded Cartoon Planet clips, but it also contains a folder with a bunch of photos I took in Alaska on a rather cheap, low resolution digital camera I had at the time. I don't know why I even decided to look at what was on that CD, but I'm very glad I did. Now I have proof that these things actually exist, or existed as late as 2004, at least. Anyway, check these out:
I wish I knew how to get my hands on some more. These things were really good.
More Indy May 18, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Archaeology, News, TV/Movies.Tags: Indiana Jones
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This story is in the BBC News today. The new Indy movie sounds like it's going to be pretty good, actually. This passage, especially, gives me great hope:
'Director Steven Spielberg has largely jettisoned computer generated effects (much to the chagrin of tech freak Lucas) with the result that the film's action sequences have a visceral, physical quality you rarely find in modern-day blockbusters.'
Thank god.
Cheaper than grad school May 15, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Archaeology, Humor, Life, News, TV/Movies.Tags: ethics, hats, Indiana Jones, Paul Zimansky
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I think this may be my fast-track to a career in archaeology. Anyone want to loan me $100?
Speaking of Indy, there was also this AP story on Yahoo! News the other day (via). My favorite part of the whole article is Paul Zimansky's quote:
'”I wish he'd take more notes and things. What's his publication record?” Zimansky said. “But I don't think anybody ever bought the ethos of Indiana Jones as a real career track.”'
That probably wouldn't make for a very exciting movie, but we all know that Indiana Jones probably wouldn't have a good shot at tenure.
I'd probably expect more Indy “news” as the release date draws ever nearer.
Impulse buying May 12, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Archaeology, Humor, Life.Tags: '60s, books, Boston, Kathleen Kenyon
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I was out at the rather strange used furniture/electronics/whatever store in Allston today buying a chair (my previous Ikea chair didn't make it), and I decided to look through their used book rack. There are usually a couple cool old books in racks like that, and they had one I couldn't pass up:
Yes, Kathleen Kenyon's Beginning in Archaeology. This is the revised edition, printed in 1968 (the first printing was 1952), as you might have guessed. Check out that cover. Groovy, no? That's actually what convinced me that I had to have it. I'll probably actually read it one of these days, too.
More on the concrete pyramids May 1, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Archaeology, News.Tags: archaeoblog, concrete pyramids, Egypt
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So, there's this story about marine fossils in the stones the pyramids are made of (via ArchaeoBlog). Here's the gist of it for you:
'The fossils are largely undamaged and are distributed in a random manner within the stone, in accordance with their typical distribution at sea floors.
So, Liritzis and his team argue that the large building stones used to construct the monuments must have been carved out of natural stone instead of cast in moulds.
To further their argument, the scientists say the x-ray patterns detect no presence of lime, which would be expected along with the salt natron, which would indicate cast materials.
They also point out there are no references of moulds, buckets or other casting tools in early Egyptian paintings, sculptures or texts.'
Anthony over at ArchaeoBlog pulled out the best quote from the people arguing for concrete in the article, and I feel like I have to repeat it here:
'”There is no evidence known that suggests the ancient Egyptians had cranes,” he says. “Without cranes, it is difficult to imagine how they could have lifted giant stones, some as heavy as 200 tonnes.”'
Well, I'm certainly convinced. I can't imagine an explanation for putting the blocks in place that doesn't involve cranes. (Oh, by the way: I was being sarcastic.)
Archaeology quote of the day May 1, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Archaeology, Food, Humor, Language.Tags: books, Norman Yoffee, quotes, sandwiches, theory
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I'm currently rereading Norman Yoffee's Myths of the Archaic State, and I'm really surprised that this short passage didn't stand out to me when I read it the first time:
'Many of these activities could be called “methodology,” but in order not to bruise the sensibilities of some archaeologists, I call this level not “low-level theory,” as Raab and Goodyear have done, but “basic-level theory” or BLT. The ingredients of BLTs provide sustenance to archaeologists' (Yoffee 2005: 186).
I'm positive someone must have mentioned this in that class, but I don't remember it. Archaeologists do love BLTs, though.
References
Yoffee, Norman
2005 Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations. New York: Cambridge University Press.
