Branding, well.......i used to diparage pop branding, due to the vast sums spent on advertising/propaganda. but with the internet, maybe its now possible to get decent feedbac on a brand, a product. I recall some guy, had special "nike member" status or some shit, back when wearing basketball boots (with the laces undone, negating any possible worth of wearing a supportive sport boot) was cool. The guy went through $1000 of nike BBALL a year, and didnt play basketball. Strangely, they fell to bits with regularity, they were SHIT QUALITY. There has always been an inverse relationship, between ad spending and the actual worth of a product, the odd thing of course is both coke and pepsi are highly corrosive death merchants, little better than tobacco corps......................in a couple hundred years time, it will likely be known as "black death". Just speculation, of course. But, heres the thing....was looking at some cheap shoes on ebay, and there were these runners....looked like crap, no -name brand, made in bolivia or something. and im thinking, maybe not, you know............ Ah, the fickle mind of a consumer
Had a strange dream last night; in this nightnmare, i was reading pabst's comments about permanent repricing of commodities, which while i know to be true, a known phenomenon, caused much nightmarish angst. For in this dream, gold decoupled permanently from all known market correlations, in circumstances seemingly benign, particularly given the range of "good as gold" investments and hedges available to savvy investors, in this day and age. Quite disturbing. Is it possible, "to-the-moon" gold bug's could be right for a change? Statistically, the cows come home at some point; normally, they would be milked at that time, rather than jumping over the moon, although mixing metaphors wasn't the objective here.
Picket fences. I never really got them. The typical variety, is scarcely tall enough to hem in a small toddler, certainly not enough to stop someone vaulting them, or a dog for that matter. Unlikely to stop a car, and only encourages people to throw or stash rubbish in the bushes behind them, as opposed to hurling it directly onto your lawn. They have blunt, symbolic spikes, which likely only ever injure the drunk owner.....did this eventuate, from the vicious wrought iron 7 (or more) foot security fences of old, that you occasionally still see on heritage buildings, embassies and the like? Is it some sort of-expression of faith in the freindliness, of modern society? Is it completely aesthetic? I dont know, because i really dont get them.
I always thought picket fences were designed to keep the house from running away. I think it is an old superstition, houses had about picket fences.
It is the same type of superstition dogs had about walls and fences. During Roman times all dogs would squat when taking a leak, but due to the large number of injuries from walls falling on dogs while urinating eventually leading to the evolution of a dog lifting his leg (to stop a falling wall, fence, what have you) when urinating against a wall or any object higher than himself, this is a self-protective measure against falling objects.
The fork truck made life easier for the warehouse workers and effecient and productive. So now I'm at Home Depot and the fork truck driver needs a spotter/flagman/sets up the gates. Now it takes two men everytime the hi-lo is in operation. Might as well throw out the fork truck and go back to using two men to move merchandise, they have two men there anyways. Not very effecient. The whole concept of warehouse shopping blows, who wants to heat 100 - 120k sq feet store? The old days the stuff was stored in an unheated warehouse, where the customers had no business walking around with boxes falling on there head. They can't make a nice display of merchandise in a warehouse concept store anyways.
Maybe, the guy who invented the "time-motion" study would be rolling in his grave looking at some of these modern approaches. I still prefer it to the only truly efficient alternative, eliminating all middle men and salepeople -the "get it-make-it-grow it yourself you lazy bastard" approach. Also called "republicanism". The casualty rate would make industrial accidents look like a good deal, people just dont know how to, or are constrained by society and corporatism itself from self sufficiency now. Short of the french "gleaning" tradition, (most call it scavenging, now, again a removal from actual needs and wants) there isn't really a modern culture of -efficiency.