|
Pharmaceutical advertising
|
Jan 7, 2008
|
|
The Public Library of Science says drug companies spend $57.5 billion on marketing, compared to $31.5 billion on research. It's a major conflict of interest when a company geared towards improving your health is really just after your money. (via Consumerist) #entertainment
|
|
Know your stuff
|
Jan 7, 2008
|
I get annoyed when people who should know their stuff don't know their stuff. Especially when "knowing their stuff" is pretty specific and would seem to be not only relevant but essential to proper job performance.
Case in point #1: Trying to buy an iPod from Best Buy the week after Christmas. Walked in the store, prepared to buy one, only to be told they're out of stock and won't be in for a few weeks. When asked if one could be bought from the website, the portable music center employees (2) said the website would be out of stock too. A normal person would believe them because, after all, who better to ask about portable music players than the people who work in that section of Best Buy, whose only care in the world is the sale of portable music players and the information required therein. But what do I find on the Best Buy website? iPods. Billions of them. On sale. With free shipping. Thanks Best Buy portable music center. Pull your heads out of your butts and know your stuff. At least check your own company's website.
Case in point #2: Who would know more about video games than those dorks at GameStop? Apparently some other dude, because those dorks don't know crap. I went in to buy some games and asked one of the guys a question about one of the games. I realize there are no less than five different gaming systems currently on the market, and each system has somewhere in the area of hundreds of games. There's no way a person could know every game on every system. However, if a game has a recognizable name and has been around for a few years, I'd expect a GameStop dork to know about it. Or at least to have read a review. Or at least to be able to make up a quick lie on the spot. But, no. I got none of that. All I got was a pasty, facial-haired, "Sorry sir, but will that be all?" Yes that will be all. Thanks for nothing. #technology
|
|
Camera phone
|
Jan 7, 2008
|
|
Instead of starting with a cell phone and shoving a cheap little camera into it, I think cell phone makers should start with a legitimate digital camera and add some simple phone capabilities. That would make a much better camera phone. #technology
|
|
Celebrity schools
|
Jan 7, 2008
|
Grade schools, middle schools, and high schools are usually named after someone important. John F. Kennedy. Martin Luther King. Buzz Aldrin. If not a famous historical person, the school will often be named after its founder, who's usually a philanthropic educationally-minded person.
Not so for the public school district of East Orange, New Jersey. Of its many excellent (and by excellent, I mean awful) schools, the following three stand out to me: - Whitney E. Houston Academy
- Dionne Warwick Institute
- Johnnie L. Cochran Junior Academy
What better role models for our children than a druggie husband-abuser, a delinquent taxpayer, and a Hollywood lawyer. God bless the children of East Orange. #education
|
|