Society + Environment – Page 4

Another Reason Why Songs Are Pirated

The music industry has been complaining about how cheap songs are on Apple’s iTunes music store. Even though iTunes seems to be the only solution to curb the explosive music pirating subculture, the record executives just don’t get it.

Sony, acting like a jackass, put out a CD with a copy-protection measure built-in. The CD installs an invisible piece of software in the computer to make sure the owner of the CD can’t rip it. But the plan backfired as a trojan virus, brilliantly, piggybacks on the Sony code.

And the record executives complain about CD sales going down the hill? Who’s going to buy a copy of CD that they can’t rip, and worst yet, could potentially put a security flaw in CD owner’s computer?

Dumbasses.

The Great Wall of America

A Republican congressman plans to propose that the United States build a 2000-mile fence across its borders with Mexico.

Yeah, the Chinese tried that thousands of years ago. Didn’t quite work as hoped… Did it stop the invaders from trying to kick Chinese butt? No. In fact, the wall was breached quite often.

Yeah, expect illegal immigration to go way down once the wall is errected.

Are the Republicans trying to compensate for something by errecting such a giant wall?

The Rape of Nanking

The death of Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking (more), came as a shocking news to me, especially considering she died almost a year ago.

I first came across Iris Chang’s book when I was doing research for a topic for my graduate thesis on the Nanking Massacre. I remember emailing her asking for sources of images used in her book on Oct. 16, 2004. Little did I know, in less than a month, she’d commit suicide due to depression. According to Paual Kamen in her eulogy for Iris Chang, Iris was getting very depressed from discoveries she found in her research for another book she was writing about American POWs in Southeast Asia during World War 2.

While much has been written about the Holocausts of the Jewish and Bosian people, little attention has been paid to the Nanking Massacre. Worst yet, nothing has been done about Japan’s official and public denial of the event. But how could they avoid such truth? The atrocities the Japanese committed in Nanking were so terrible that even Nazis couldn’t believe it happened (John Rabe, a Nazi stationed in China at the time, became the “Schindler” of China by rescuing thousands of Chinese from the massacre. Imagine that.)

She was widely credited for bringing the atrocities of the event by the Japanese to the Western World through her best selling book.

An interview on NPR’s All Things Considered with Iris Chang in 1997 can be found here. Her official home page is here.

Innovation, Competition and Waste Management

In response to Mark’s comment on my last entry on biodegradable diapers, I thought the issue deserves a longer entry to discuss the issue of corporate ethics (or lack thereof).

The government site I included in that entry did have links to a couple of companies that make biodegradable materials for diapers. I think the materials are just too expensive to manufacture for mass consumers right now. But then again, the economics of scale… Hello, chicken and the egg…

As for longer lasting and better quality diapers (or products in general), what the market really needs is competition to keep it healthy and technologies advancing. When there are only two or three really big players cornering the market, that’s when innovation will slow to a halt. Case in point — Wintel PC industry. Nobody is innovating. The market is full of cloners with Dell being the top dog. To give the diaper manufacturers where credit’s due though, Proctor & Gamble, Kimerly-Clark and others have introduced better and longer lasting diapers. The diapers today weight less and absorb a lot more than diapers from 10 years ago.

Since I am on the subject of diapers, I might as well mention our latest discoveries… We found that the generic supermarket brands don’t absorb quite as well as the name brands. Bryan now sleeps through the night when he’s wearing Pampers during the night. But he will demand for a diaper change in the middle of night if he sleeps with the generic stuff from Safeway. Other than that, the generic stuff is more than sufficient for day time use.

Coming back to the economics and ethics of companies, consumers have a lot more power than they realize. The manufacturers sure as hell aren’t going to invest in the R&D if there’s no demand for it. Corporations exist to maximize profit for their investors with little to no concern to anything else, including ethics and the environment.

Take another example, everything in the United States seems to be disposable. In some cases, that’s just good hygiene. But I have a hunch that in most cases, it’s good business. Something that needs to be replaced brings ever flowing revenues to the manufacturer. Sure, more innovative products can also drive sales, but why investing in the research for innovative products when a product can secure people’s spending by making them coming back for the same thing over and over? The shaving blades is a good example. But in all seriousness, I am not sure if the blades are actually so dull that they need to be replaced every six months. Maybe it’s the psychology that every time you cut yourself, you think it’s the fault of dull blades?

As a consumer, when I am making purchasing decisions, I try to bear in mind the issues above. I know that every time I reach for my credit card/cash in my wallet, I am excercising the power of choice with which company I want for them to profit off of me. I am sure Brian would agree with me… He’s the one started all this “consumer power” stuff in my head… Hah!

Just for the record, I say no to the following products as much as possible:
Microsoft (software division; way too many bugs)
Dell (leeching off of others’ innovations)
Disney (except when it comes to Pixar movies)
Sony (their electronics break way too frequently)
Huggies (leaky diapers for boys)

Biodegradable Diapers

Simon sent me an article (free registration required) from the New York Times about toilet training infants. The idea is to train the babies to go potty without using the diapers. Diaper Free Baby, a nonprofit organization with members all over the world, has been a driving force behind the cause. While many parents who succeed in trying the techniques have sworn by them, I am just not sure about the long term implications of subjecting young infants to such activities when they are not cognitively ready.

On the other hand, I do feel bad about contributing to part of the 18 million diapers that ended up in the landfills every year. Some researchers have talked about the promise of biodegradable diapers. But others are not quite as optimistic about prospects of such products being cheap and available enough to make an impact.

Through a website maintained by the State of California, I found some companies that make it a business plan to deliver/recycle reusable diapers. The idea is the service provider will provide resuable diapers, collect the soil ones and deliver the fresh ones on a monthly basis for a fee. But here’s the catch, I wonder what the impact is on the environment with all the gasoline, clean water, electricity and detergent used to provide such service on a regular basis. The research figures on the environmental impacts of disposable diapers are daunting. But I’d also want to find out, like wise, what the total cost/environmental impact is for reusable diapers. In addition, just how hygienic is it to share reusable diapers with potentially hundreds of other babies?

The Price of Being Cheap

Over the years I have heard and read about how big chain stores have been putting small local (a.k.a. mom and pop) shops out of business. I never really paid much attention to news like that as long as I was saving money at those national chain stores, and usually I was.

It didn’t really hit me until a few years ago Brian had casually mentioned how a newly opened Home Depot at his home town in Michigan was having a negative impact on his father’s gardening supplies business. I was embarrassed to have been so insensitive to the news, like millions of consumers.

Worst yet, now some experts are finding out how these every-day-low-prices-guaranteed national chains (ahem-WalMart-ahem) are really doing to the American economy. It’s turned a “need-based” consumer culture into a want-based consumer culture. There’s so much junk in most American homes that there’s now a growing trend in renting self-storages to store all the stuff that most people don’t need in the first place. It’s such an irony that Brian’s family decided to open a self storage facility after conceding defeat to competition with Home Depot.

Jib Jab is a site that used to create mostly political satire animations. But their latest work, Big Box Mart, accurately captured the economic and clutural trend in the United States. If you don’t agree with the underlining message, at least you’ll get a good laugh out of the silly animation.

Made in Taiwan, with Oversized Ego

Taiwan contracted the world’s most ambitious “Build-Operate-Transfer” (BOT) jobs of its kind back in the late 1990’s to build a high speed bullet train project. The construction has been cursed with political scandals and corruptions ever since.

The total cost of the project has been estimated at about $2 trillion Taiwan dollars (or roughtly USD $61,538,461,000) by the time the construction is completed in late 2006. It will be 2 years late and billions of Taiwan dollars over budget — a laughing stock in the world of construction business.

The interesting thing about the scandal is, it’s an open secret of corruption and political favors. The Taiwanese media has repeatedly reported the details of the scandal. But yet nothing has been, and, with the way things are, ever will be, done about it because it involves both the sitting and previous presidents of Taiwan and their cabinets. It’s also clear the people of Taiwan fell asleep at the wheel having reelected the same morons who blindly passed the provisions of the project in the legislature. That’s why I think the South Koreans really got their shit together when they arrested, tried and convicted their former president for his criminal acts. As conflicts of interest continue to taint the construction, it’s not hard to see those elected morons will continue to gain the support of the businesses working on the project.

This sort of mirrors Enron’s ties to Bush Jr.. And it also echoes how Dick~~head~~ Cheney’s former company easily won the bids on the reconstruction projects in Iraq.

On a related issue, even though Taiwan has projected itself as a democratic and free society, the lawmakers in the parliament continue to demonstrate their shameless and childish ways of resolving political issues by literally brawling each other. I mean, if they truly care about their issues, I dare them to really challenge each other over a duel, like the good old days of America. That Alexandar Hamilton had some balls; in comparison, most of the Taiwanese legislators are a bunch of legalized criminals whose brains are the size of peanuts with no room for EQ.

Consumer Choices

I was at Valley Fair Mall, a trendy mall in the area, when I saw the logo of Clear Channel on one of the mall’s floor maps. Clear Channel controls a good number of radio and TV stations in the United States. And now, to my amazement, it also owns shopping malls.

Clear Channel is a conservative-run organization, kind of like Fox News. Media companies like them are especially dangerous because of their projected illusion to its audience as “fair and unbiased” choice of news sources. But in fact, they practice censorship and political biases so obviously that the practice just goes over the head of the American general public.

A couple of years ago, Brian convinced me that consumers have a choice of where they spend their money. If the consumer doesn’t believe in the practice of a certain corporation, he has the option of not giving them any business. My argument was, “right, they are really going to change because I refuse to give them my drop-in-the-bucket dollar.” But deep down, I know he’s right. It may not make a big difference individually, but at least I am not supporting an organization that does things against my moral fiber.

No more shopping at Valley Fair Mall then.

A Republican Renaissance

Let’s see… now the Republican Party rules the House of Representatives, the Senate, the White House. And just days ago, they managed to get John Roberts confirmed (partly thanks to disorganization of the Democrats).

Granted John Roberts’ nomination has good merits with years of experience as a judge. But now the Bush Administration seems to be back to honoring his buddy system by nominating someone who’s completely unqualified to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Is he out of his mind?

If the Supreme Court becomes a conservative playhouse, some cases may get overturned by the new court (i.e. “Pro Choice” rights… etc).

Help! America has gone wild.

Buying Power

It had been three years since I got my last eye exam. And Grace had always hated my glasses from the dot-bum days anyway. So we decided it was time for a “makeover”.

Contacts were originally considered briefly, but I simply couldn’t stand the idea of having foreign objects in my eyes. And plus somehow my eyelashes get into my eyes very easily (sometimes a few times a day), it’d really be a biatch to have to take out my contacts, cleanse it with a special solution which I’d have to bring with me, and then put it back on. So contacts were out.

Then we started shopping for best prices for eye exam, lenses and the frame. My requirements were simple: Transitions lenses, cheap but elegant frames, and preferably discounted/free eye exam.

We stopped by LensCrafters for pricing.
Transitions lenses: $300
UV/Scratch resistant coating: $70
Eye exam: $75

We didn’t even bother looking at the frames; we walked right out.

Next stop, Costco.
Transitions lenses: $140 (UV coating included)
Scratch resistant coating: $10
Eye exam: $45
Frame: $119
Not feeling like a jackass: Priceless

No brainer there. But I was annoyed that there was such a big difference in price discrepancies. Does Costco really do that much more business than LensCrafters that they can afford to cut such a bargain with Transitions lens? All I know is, I felt empowered that I didn’t have to be robbed.

Back to my eyes: As it turned out that my eye sight actually improved. I attribute my eye sight having stayed at almost exactly the same level for the past 10 years to my stubbornness on always using the best lenses available. Some people I know would get “lens + frame” deals for $99. Corrective vision is all about quality of light being passed through the lenses that help you see. Having the best lenses puts less strain on the eyes. The same principal applies in photography — skills and camera body aside, lens is the single most important investment for serious photographers. Bad lens = poor quality prints.

Politics and I

I did a political matrix test once a few years ago on where I was politically. I think I was on the extreme side of the liberal spectrum. So I thought I’d try to find out what’s changed now. I found this The Politics Test and gave it a try.

Result:

You are a Social Liberal (70% permissive)
and an Economic Liberal (16% permissive)
You are best described as a Socialist

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

Some charts to go with the result.
Political Matrix result