Oh, super!

.

OK, I know it is a low ball to pick on the balding guys with pony tails who run advertising and marketing departments but can anyone tell what what "Very Premium" means?
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A weekend off. At home, but off.

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This is the 925th post on A Curate's Egg and my 1,522nd post over all in five blogs.

No wonder I feel knackered!

This morning I was all for chucking it in but I am feeling a little less impulsive this afternoon. I must apologise to folk as I have not been particularly diligent in travelling around the commenting traps of the blogs in my Reader (358 unread posts waiting for me.).

It is interesting blogging but at times I feel that I am starting to repeat myself, having flogged my hobby horses numerous times. Speaking of which, the above figures don't include the now defunct Chemist's Cookbook, a blog about food from a chemist's point of view.

However, I shall persevere, as long as people keep coming back to read!

◊◊◊

Just an update on the ads. I have been looking at the figures and this is how it pans out:

◊ Roughly one person out of every 250 visitors clicks on an ad. (0.38%)

◊ Most of these people have come because of Boneman's fine efforts at propelling The Curate After Dark blog into the international limelight.

◊ Limelight fades.

◊ The ads have brought in 69¢ a day, roughly one good coffee a week. Boneman, I owe you!

◊ There is no retirement plan there but they add an element of interest.
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Could backfire...

An Adelaide woman who survived for nine days in New Zealand bushland, eating just Weetbix and muesli bars, wants to remain anonymous.

The woman, aged in her 20s, was trying to cross a track on rugged land owned by Canadian singer Shania Twain near Wanaka in the south island.

She got tired and scared, so she sat in a hut for nine days until another bushwalker arrived to raise the alarm.

Phillip Melchior from New Zealand's volunteer search and rescue organisation LandSAR says the woman does not want to speak publicly about her ordeal.

Mr Melchior does not know if people from Weetbix have been in touch with the woman, but says he would not be surprised if she was offered a contract.

- ABC.

This could backfire terribly on the company; imagine the headlines:

Woman survives for nine days despite having only Weet-Bix to eat!

◊◊◊

BTW if you are feeling up to it, try to eat a dry Weet-Bix in under a minute. No cheating: no water.
..

No, I'll stick with "dodgey".

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Andy Green contacted me yesterday, via the comments to yesterday's post, and asked that I remove the dodgey designation to the Beat Blue Monday site.

While I am sure, or at least hope, the site means well, I do not think their 'beat the blues' equation is remotely scientific and promoting it as such is deceptive and, hence, dodgey.

The equation is described as "first defined by Cliff Arnall, formerly of Cardiff University". I hope this is not typical of his research methods. It calculates that Monday 19 January 2009 is the worst day of the year.

It is as follows:


The model was broken down using six immediately identifiable factors;

• weather (W),
• debt (d),
• time since Christmas (T),
• time since failing our new year’s resolutions (Q),
• low motivational levels (M) and
• the feeling of a need to take action (Na).

A few points, just a few, I don't want to bore you.

The D in the equation is undefined; presumably it is the day of the year.

There is no second half to the equation: like x = y+z. So what does the equation equal?

Units are undefined. How do you subtract debt from days and then subtract the difference from weather?

It is really quite bizarre.

Now if they said it was a joke, and made it a joke rather than a university endorsed 'equation', they could still pursue the cause of depression but without the fake authority of scientific endorsement.

The emperor's new labcoat.

So I thought it dodgey. Still do.
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They are playing with your brain!

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On the Mind Hacks blog, he is discussing the psychology of choice:

"He notes that the UK magazine The Economist was offering a web only subscription for $59, a print subscription for $125 dollars, and a print-and-internet subscription also for $125.

It seems no-one would choose the print-only subscription - it seems obsolete - but its mere presence affects our reasoning and boosts the sales the more expensive option.

In a study to test this, Ariely gave participants the choice between these three subscription options, and to another group of participants, the choice only between web-only and print-and-internet subscriptions.

In the three option condition 16 people chose the internet-only subscription, none the print-only subscription and the other 84 chose the print-and-internet option.

As the print-only is obselete, it should make no difference whether it is part of the choice or not, when it isn't there, in the two choice condition, the reverse pattern emerged. The majority, 68 people, chose the cheaper online option, while only 32 took the print-and-internet option.

In other words, the print-only is a decoy and it makes us think that the print-and-internet option is a better deal because it has something 'free', when in reality, this impression is just created because we've just been presented with a decoy worse deal."

- Mind Hacks

Nasty, nasty advertising people!

◊◊◊

When you read the words "card credit"
and "you thank" in this sentence,
you'll probably think you read
"credit card" and "thank you",
but you didn't.

Thanks to Mark for this.

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Scrub up!

I recently bought a nail brush.

I was impressed that the packet included usage instructions. I have lead a broadly experiential life and it has made me fairly intuitive with the working of things like a nail brush but I will concede that there may be people out there who need such guidance.

What really worried me though was the terrible slur that the brush cast on my character, broad life experiences not withstanding. I use a nail brush because I have dirty nails, usually from toiling away in the vegetable garden. This is good, clean, honest dirt.

The packet says the brush is for removing dirt and scum from under my nails.

Scum!

I really must protest. Like fathers and Santa Claus, like Batman and Bruce Wayne, like Brian Burke and Kevin Rudd, scum and I are never seen together. How would I feel if some impertinent little check out girl was to say “Oh, a nail brush! Got scum under your nails then, have you?” Horrified, that’s how.

Please, bring out a scum brush if you must but leave the nail brush to the filthy but manly realms of dirt.
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For when a 4WD/SUV is not enough...

In order to try and get a bit of a cross-section of what is happening in the world, I look in on a number of news websites. One of them is the Washington Post. Recently that website has been carrying ads for the Boeing HH-47 helicopter.

Are things so tough in the US now that Boeing wants to sell its weaponry to the average suburban reader? Is this the new way of getting the kids to school? Is it one-upmanship, where the Jones out-do their neighbours who only have an armour clad Hummer? Or has street violence reached a point where lift-and-carry is the only safe way to get to the mall?
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