Interesting viral marketing attempt by Lakewood Lakehead University in Northern Ontario. It got picked up by the BBC, but its influence on the University’s reputation is questionable.
The text reads, “Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart. If you agree click here.”
Probably not the best positioning. Afterall, it’s not like just any privileged billionaire can become president. You’ve got to have something going on upstairs and you have to relate to the common man. Appealing to the common American is what the Bush shtick is about. He is meant to appear guiless and without alterier motive. That’s not stupid.
The bottom line for democrats is that when you underestimate your opponent you lose.
There is nothing like the madness of a good old anti-Semitic theocratic dictatorship to remind us that America is only slightly nuts. Sanity is often something measured by degrees and something one can only judge by observing the actions of those more crazed than oneself.
Courtesy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a ripe lunatic to be sure, we now have the Holocaust International Cartoon Contest.
The exhibition is intended to expose what some here see as Western hypocrisy for invoking freedom of expression regarding the publication of cartoons that lampooned the Prophet Muhammad while condemning President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran for questioning the Holocaust.
We’re used to rabid Jew bashing in the western world, so I don’t think that this expo is going to have the effect that Ahmadinejad was hoping for. Don’t expect riots and destruction of Iranian or Arab embassies.
Even Iranians were confused about the purpose of the show in a place where these views are already so pervasive in the state run press.
“Look, these cartoons are the reflections of U.S. and Israelis’ deeds, but wouldn’t it have been better if they were put on display in the U.S. or even in Israel?†said Ali Eezadi, 70, a retired industrial engineer who visited the gallery Thursday afternoon.
I think it is wonderful to see this government sanctioned anti-Semitic, anti-American, anti-western art show. Let’s not beat around the bush any more with veiled remarks and subtle hints. If you think that the Holocaust didn’t happen, or was funny, or if you think that Israel should be wiped off the map and all Jews should be driven out of the Arab world, or better yet exterminated, then let your true colors fly!
Sunlight is the best antiseptic, and maybe we can prevent WWIII by opening up this insanity for debate. I seriously doubt that this art show represents the views of most Muslims, and if it does, then I’d like to know that too.
It is time for the reasonable voices in this world to rise up and be heard. It’s time for people like Akbar Ganji to take center stage. I encourage you to read the Washington Post profile of him.
Ganji has spent the last 6 years in prison, often in soletary confinement. While in prison, he engaged in multiple hunger strikes in protest of his incarceration with the longest hunger strike lasting 73-days.
He speaks as an individual, a rare quality these days, and often finds himself in opposition, not only to the authoritarian Iranian regime, but also to the democratic reform movement for their timidness and willingness to compromise with Iran’s theocratic dictatorship. He also opposes the Bush administration policies, which have undermined democratic movements throughout the Middle East.
The people of the earth, the silent majority, have a right and a responsibility to make their voices heard, as Ganji does. We need to find means and courage to peacefully overthrow the many oppressive and violent regimes throughout the world. We need to find means to effectively oppose the insane policies of our own government witout resorting to the entrenched ideology of powerful political parties and special interest groups.
The time has come for a world conversation, but the question remains. How do we shut the lunatics out? They have run the asylum for much too long. Despite claims to the contrary, it seems that the Internet is empowering the psychotics and allowing them to rally popular support like never before.
Media savvy dictators, religious fanatics, and all those who wish to make the world bend to there wishes have found the Internet an exceptional tool for shaping public opinion, and the rational voices are beginning to get drowned out. Please pass the mic to people like Ganji.
There is a story out there that has been told again and again by the big Internet companies. It goes something like this, “We track your searches, scan your emails, and store every click you make on our site, to deliver you the best user experience possible.”
I’ve rarely seen any improvements in my user experience brought about by storing anything except my login information and the data that I specifically asked to have stored.
Most instances of personal data being used to deliver a “better user experience,” revolve around advertising, and the incredibly large premium that advertisers will pay for a well targeted ad versus and untargeted ad. Storing user data has very little to do with delivering you a better online experience and everything to do with delivering you to advertisers at a higher price. It’s not about user experience, it is about user segmentation.
This is why I was so happy to see Jason Calcanisis suggest that AOL should simply trash its log files immediately.
Frankly, I want us to NOT KEEP LOGS of our search data. Yep, you heard that right… we shouldn’t even keep this data. I know that’s crazy, but I learned this week that Wikipedia turned off their log files. They did this for tech reasons, but they now are keeping them off and not looking to solve the problem because of the huge upside of users knowing their searches on wikipedia DON’T EVEN EXIST!
I think we should use this as a way to brand AOL Search: We don’t record your searches!
After reading Jason’s post my second thought was that the entire community of net billionaires was going to crucify him for saying this, which is why it isn’t a surprise that he announced a blogging vacation yesterday.
I think I’m gonna take the rest of the week off from blogging as a “cool down” period. I don’t want to say something I regret, and I don’t want to become the spokesperson for the entire company–that’s not my job and it’s not my desire. I just want to build cool stuff with cool people I respect.
Did some AOL higher-ups get to him and suggest a short break before he cut the heart out of the Internet’s tried and tested model for sensational profitability (delivering you to the advertisers)?
I think that the idea of ditching all user data except that which we ask companies to store is a brilliant idea. Advertisers are not really going to understand what a person wants by looking at this data gathered on the sly. It just doesn’t tell enough of the story. Even the NY Times article on Searcher No. 4417749 doesn’t tell you who Thelma Arnold really is. If you want to know who someone is and what they want just ask them.
I know this is crazy talk to technophiles, who think human beings can be reduced to numbers, but asking Thelma what ads she wants to see is, well, the fastest way to determine what ads Thelma wants to see. Don’t try to be omniscient. Advertisers always get it wrong when they do this. Just ask.
We the readers understand that advertising based media companies will always require that we see their stupid ads, but if they really care about us as they often profess, then they will let us chose the types of ads that we see. Give us a choice of ad channels and we’ll tell you the best ads to serve. Give us a universal advertising profile that we can customize to defend ourselves against all the stupid ads that we don’t want to see, and you will always know exactly what we want. It’s a relatively simple idea to put the ranking and streaming of ads in users hands, but more difficult to put into practice. I’m interested to learn about any organizations that are actively engaged in this type of project.
The staff of American Madness would like to thank the 