Posted by John Ray
“So the star, with the wan moon in its wake, marched across the Pacific, trailed the thunderstorms like the hem of a robe, and the growing tidal wave that toiled behind it, frothing and eager, poured over island and island and swept them clear of men. Until that wave came at last — in a blinding light and with the breath of a furnace, swift and terrible it came — a wall of water, fifty feet high, roaring hungrily, upon the long coasts of Asia…..” said HG wells more then a 100 years ago, was he a fiction writer or a prophet? With the recent rumblings from the notorious “Ring of Fire,” the latter seems apparent. The “Ring of Fire” is an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the basin of the southern pacific. Last year in the capital city of Sumatra, a magnitude-8.7 quake killed 900 people and the destruction continued with last monday the 17th of july, when a 7.7 magnitude quake off Java’s southern coast triggered a tsunami that hammered the coastal land, killing at least 668 people. Then relentlessly the destruction continued with a magnitude-6.1 earthquake that struck at 6:16 p.m. Wednesday. According to Suharjono of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Sumatra “Statistically speaking, only two events out of the average 6,000 quakes recorded in Indonesia each year are heavily destructive But, lately they have been occurring more often.” Suharjono of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Sumatra said.”The most active area lies along the west of Sumatra, north of Papua, below Java and Nusa Tenggara, as well as that in North Sulawesi,” In the growing spells of catastrophes what the future holds may not be what we choose to see.
Posted by John Ray
A recent University of Chicago Graduate (Dr. Antonia Kronlund) from the school of business may have discovered the archiles heal of our prefercences by the way of anagrams. According to Applied Cognative Pysychology “Consumer preferences for a brand can be increased over the competition by techniques used to manipulate memory.” She conducted two experiences with the use of anagrams. “It’s the actual contrast between seeing the anagram in its initial, versus its solved form, that we believe creates this preference effect. That is because the anagram in its initial form appears to be non-fluent–participants have never seen anagrams such as GANECY before.
Once solved, however, the solution is processed with high fluency. Think of the “aha” experience one would feel when realizing the solution is AGENCY. We believe that this surprising fluency, arising from the disparity, gets misattributed to brand recognition and preference,” says Dr. Kronlund. “It is an age of increasing mental uneasiness, of forced beliefs, hypocrisy, cynicism, abandon and impatience. What has been hitherto a final and impenetrable background of conviction in the rightness of the methods of behaviour characteristic of the national or local culture of each individual, becomes, as it were, a dissolving and ragged curtain.” says HG wells, his concerns has appeared to be realized.
Posted by John Ray
“The marvel of drugs has always been great to my mind; you can madden a man, calm a man, make him incredibly strong and alert or a helpless log, quicken this passion and allay that, all by means of drugs” Says Wells, but as the hike of controlled drugs and increase of abusers far out number the US population growth it suggests that our Pharmaceutical companies are more interested in profits then the good of medicine . The result, a steady rise of substance abusers. According to Joseph A. Califano Jr., former U.S. secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. “There is not a perfect relation between that and the rise in abuse. But there is enough to suggest there is a relation.” Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of OxyContin, a painkiller originally intended for end-stage cancer patients is now widely used amoung the general population. According to a study done by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University it showed that Purdue “aggressively marketed” the drug for lesser pain resulting in more prescriptions. The company also designed OxyContin in a way that allows abusers to crush and snort the pills, overcoming its time-release formula and allowing a narcotic rush.
But pain prescription are not the only profitable target for the industry. French company Sanofi-Aventis has created what financial analysts exclaim to be most promising new drug (Acomplia) a new diet drug.
They predict multibillion dollar sales. Another,GlaxoSmithKline is proposing an over-the-counter version for a culture plagued by obesity. Glaxo plans to draw on some of the same marketing techniques it used in 1996, when it successfully commercialized Nicorette chewing gum and Nicoderm skin patches, which had formerly been sold only by prescription. “Here was a new miracle to be added to this strange armoury of phials the doctors use!” said Wells But at what cost? an addictive society?
Posted by John Ray
“Man, unless the order of the universe has come to and end, will undergo further modifications and at least cease to be man, giving rise to some other type of animated being.” warns HG Wells. In China a number of Asians look to remake themselves. Asians are increasingly asking their surgeons for wider eyes, longer noses and fuller breasts, features not typical of the culture. In American a growing concern about the potential influence the media may have on a young generations self-esteem and body image are leading them to a welcoming stance towards cosmetic surgery. “The work of ameliorating the conditions of life - the true civilizing process that makes life more and more secure - had gone steadily on to a climax. ” Says Wells, But is this constant strive for physical improvement a marketing strategy for the industry fed by our own vanity or is the media really that strong of an influence? “People want to look more beautiful as a way to show off their newfound wealth,” explains Dr. He Xiaoming of the Peking Medical Union College’s Plastic Surgery Hospital. A possible result of relentless bombardment of Hollywood and satellite TV. “When the market goes up, I get more patients. When it drops, so do my appointments.” Dr, Xiaoming adds.
Posted by John Ray
Since the Muslim Militant party Hamas has come to power in March the on going Israeli-Palestinian conflict has continued to consume the war torn nations. With the Assignation of Jamal Abu Samhadana, a high-ranking officer for Hamas to the recent kidnapping of 19 year old Israel Soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit. The continued ping-pong type responses from each countries leadership, is only feeding each others demise which is treacherousness against its own people. “It lies within the power of the Atlantic communities to impose peace upon the world and secure unimpeded movement and free speech from end to end of the earth. This is a fact on which the Open Conspiracy must insist. The English-speaking states, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, the Scandinavian countries and Russia, given not only a not very extravagant frankness of understanding between them, and a common disposition towards the idea of the Open Conspiracy, could cease to arm against each other and still exert enough strength to impose disarmament and a respect for human freedom in every corner of the planet. It is fantastic pedantry to wait for all the world to accede before all the world is pacified and policed. It is absurd to dream of peace and world-wide progress without that much control. Are we as a nation or United Nations for that matter sending out that message?
Posted by John Ray
“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.” exclaims HG Wells, but With the increasing threat of a world environmental catastrophe, irresponsibility continues to flourish using water as a catalyst. “Nearly half of China’s chemical plants ( of 7,555 facilities, 81% are located along rivers and lakes) pose major environmental risks” , according to (SEPA) China’s State Environmental Protection Administration. Recently, in the North-Western city of YinChuan, a break in a rusty chlorine gas pipe left 160 people hospitalized. SEPA warns of an increase in pollution incidents if safety was not improved. In our oceans, noise pollution continues to rise resulting in high profile whales beaching due to sonar blasts by the US and other nations militaries. “Their world is just being collapsed,” Christopher Clark said. A Cornell bioacoustics scientist. “They rely so heavily on sound. They can’t see anything.” With the continual pollutants of the ocean both chemical and sound, the ever increasing Dead zones are becoming prominent in the largest mass of the world. There are currently 146 dead zones in the ocean where marine life could not be supported due to depleted oxygen levels. “The work of ameliorating the conditions of life - the true civilizing process that makes life more and more secure - had gone steadily on to a climax.” said Wells, but at what cost?