US Customs Regulating Bad Taste

In another Techdirt post today, a man was fined $53,ooo for bringing back a few fake rolexes from China for family gifts. Techdirt questions whether this is the best use of Customs’ power. Shouldn’t Customs worry about the wholesaler sellers, not buyers of a few rolexes. I say Customs shouldn’t discriminate on the designer goods’ authenticity and instead fine those who enter our country wearing designer (faux or real) goods who look tacky. Bad taste is an epidemic, and Customs should be our first line of fashion police. For our second line of defense, INS (aka ICE) should deport the fashionably challenged–watch out Britney (and my father).

That Fake Rolex You Buy In China May Cost You More Than The Real Thing

Amazon Prime is the Best as long as you like paying the fee

Amazon has a program (aka Amazon Prime) where you can pay $79 a year to get free second day air shipping for any Amazon product, no matter the size of the order. A pack of razor blades, toilet paper, books, cd, you name it, just click and it arrives two days later. I use it and save tons because whenever I see something I want at a store, cd and book stores in particular, I wait until I get home, and either I reconsider my purchase or buy it for $2 cheaper than the store price (and I buy a crapload from Amazon). Apparently, some people sign up for the free trial and when the trial runs out get charged the yearly fee. Angry that they have to pay the fee, they google “Amazon Prime” to complain and funny enough Techdirt.com comes up first on Google Search Results because Techdirt wrote about the Prime program two years ago. Techdirt (link) has apparently gotten hate mail because these unhappy patrons believe that the first result must be Amazon affiliated. Just shows you it may be better to not be mentioned on Google, much like Better than a Wooden Nickel.

Next time read the fine print:

By clicking the button below, you are purchasing the item noted above (at its regular price) as well as signing up for a Free one month trial of Amazon Prime. As the trial ends, if you want to join Amazon Prime, do nothing. At that point we will enroll you in an auto-renewing, annual membership and charge a $79 annual fee. If you prefer not to upgrade to full membership, you can easily let us know at any time before your introductory membership ends, by changing your preferences in Your Account.

Better than a Wooden Nickel has no fine print, or anything fine at all.

Attention Amazon.com: You Have A Bunch Of Pissed Off Customers… And Some Are Blaming Techdirt

 

Best Outdoor Gear Review Site — Outside Mag’s GearGuy — 4 out 5 Wooden Nickels

Gearguy at Outsidemag.com gives the best advice on outdoor gear. He has the dream job of getting to test the best backpacking, biking, and climbing and getting
paid for it. And go to the trade shows where everyone kisses his ass.

I once asked him the following question: “If I ask you a gear question that you cannot answer, do you get fired and then I get to replace you?” Gearguy never answered that question.

4 out 5 Wooden Nickels – because there is no RSS feed. I know it is a for-profit site for Outside Magazine, but I still want RSS.

I Join Business Week’s Elite Circle of $1 CEOs

Today I join the Elite Club of CEOs who only take home a dollar in in
pay a year (or less). I announce to the world that as CEO of Better
than a Wooden Nickel, I will only get paid one virtual wooden nickel
all year. I have decided to link my future with the future of the
website. Don’t worry about me.

Full disclosure: If I get a wooden nickel every year from now on, I
will have over 40 wooden nickels by the time my natural life ends.
That is over two wooden dollars worth.

For a take on other CEOs who follow my path of putting the company
first, check out this Business Week article. Basically, it says that some CEOs play all humble with the 1 dollar position but get tons of stock options, that they then backdate. Steve Jobs, who is one of the eminent 1 dollar CEOs, got a least one free ipod last year, and I bet he didn’t pay taxes on it.

Outfitting your kitchen for $300 the NYTimes way or My Way

NYTimes has an excellent article on outfitting your kitchen with all the tools you need for $200-300.

A No-Frills Kitchen Still Cooks

The secret is to find a restaurant supply store and buy utilitarian tools, not fancy copper pots. If I only had $300, all my kitchen would have is an All-Clad (Cook’s Illustrated Magazine’s top rated) 3-liter saucepan, and my Shun Santuku knife. Crap, I already went over the budget.

 

And I cannot cook many things since I didn’t budget for a spoon. Before I would get a spoon, I would seriously consider this Shun Ken Onion Paring knife. And then order dinner out with my proceeds of BetterThanaWoodenNickel.

 

Crazy enough, some of my best cooking was in a third-world kitchen where I used a converted hubcap as my wok and had a throwing knife as my only good knife. I will try to find some pictures.

In conclusion, I see the point of the NYTimes’ approach, however for some of us, it is not about the product coming out of the kitchen. It is about the glow of the copper pans after the food has been eaten. For some yuppies who can’t go full hog on All-Clad and Shun, I recommend buying the “tools” at a restaurant supply store, beating the crap out of them, and then telling everyone you were given these pots after leaving Batali’s kitchen where you were apprenticing to write your “Heat” book. And then order out.

Another Wooden Nickel Effigy

Another Kilimanjaro Photo

Before the glacier melted because you drive a SUV that is even bigger than my SUV. Yes, I am talking to you. But please read my blog.

Favorite Wooden Nickel

The New Treo Blows — Palm Treo 755p

So sad how the market leader has fallen. CNET agrees that the Palm is nothing to email home about: 7.3 out of 10. It does have EV-DO though.

link

Get a Blackberry Curve or Samsung Blackjack instead.

Fireants Deserve to Die!

Fireants blow. My father swells up elephantiasis style whenever he is bit. I read today that scientists have found a virus that kicks ant ass. I am a bit worried that introducing a virus to eliminate the fireant problem may not stop with the ants, but if we can figure it how not to kill ladybugs, praying mantis, and ponys, lets exterminate those ant bastards. I have a biologist friend who if given the power would not kill all mosquitoes, and presumedly all fireants. I realize even bugs may play a valuable role in the ecosystem, but I vote mosquitoes off Earth. If you ever get malaria and feel otherwise, please comment. The article is below. I hope this is the last time I cite an article from Lubbock, Texas:

link

LUBBOCK, Texas - Imported red fire ants have plagued farmers, ranchers and others for decades. Now the reviled pests are facing a bug of their own.

Researchers have pinpointed a naturally occurring virus that kills the ants, which arrived in the U.S. in the 1930s and now cause $6 billion in damage annually nationwide, including about $1.2 billion in Texas.

Odin — favorite clothes store in NYC

NY Mag says:

Odin curates its labels to maintain a careful mix of the known (Rag & Bone, Trovata) and the get-them-before-they’re-big (currently, Engineered Garments and You Must Create). New merchandise rolls in constantly, not just seasonally, and although the shop leans toward casual separates (Rogues Gallery sweatshirts, Cheap Monday skinny jeans), you can remake an entire wardrobe right on up through a slim-cut Oliver Spencer suit. It’s not all expensive, either; polos start at $39. There are also accessories like Comme des Garçons wallets, Y-3 and Common Projects sneakers, belts, ties, jewelry, even grooming products and objects like clocks and cameras.

Slate article on why bubbles are good for the economy

Slate (my favorite mainstream internet site) posted an article on how bubbles (internet, housing, gum) are in total good for the economy. I recommend you check it out but don’t be stupid enough to invest in a bubble even if it benefits America as a whole:

slate article

But this is only half the story! After all, the process of growth and innovation doesn’t end when a bubble bursts. The Internet wasn’t unplugged and shut down in 2002. In fact, once you gain a little historical distance from bubbles, it is clear that some bubbles—some, not all—leave behind something that is a little bit boring but extremely useful: infrastructure. The bubbles that have left behind commercial infrastructure have been incredibly important contributors to America’s remarkable long-term economic performance.

I want one of the new Pioneer Plasmas

Despite lesser numbers (black levels, contrast, brightness), Pioneer plasmas are the considered the best because the screen looks the best. The latest models are supposed to be even better, and of course I have to get one. I have an industrial Panasonic plasma (for now). Gizmodo says:

The best of the model line includes a 60 and 50 inch 1080p display, with the 20,000:1 contrast ratio, “Digital Colour Filter III Plus” for the “most accurate colour reproduction in commercially available flat screen TVs” and a street date of September.

link

If the Plasma looks good in the shithole below, imagine how good the TV would look in your palace.

Signs in China — English is not their first language

When I was in China, I noticed that the Chinese tried very hard to translate signs into English, but were not always successful. I took lots of pictures of signs during my trip. Now posting crazy translations are all in vogue on the internet, including a mention of a sign in Beijing of “Racist Park” that has now been renamed to clean up the city for the Olympics. Hopefully China removed any racists, and not just the signs. Today I saw the latest Chinese bad translationsign being posted which of course I transmit to the world. Pretty dumb actually, and whoever wrote the sign writes much better English than I do Mandarin.

Get Rich Slowly Blog — He is getting rich very slowly writing his blog

One of the blogs I read is Getting Rich Slowly, a personal finance site. Today the author describes how his much more popular blog than mine makes peanuts–$13,752 and change last year, as much as he says “[t]his is not peanuts.” Blogging is tough, go to law school or become an i-banker if you want more than peanuts. He is truly getting rich slowly. I am getting rich quickly at my day job. Then I plan to get poor even faster.

link

He says:

I made $13,752.12 (before taxes) during the first twelve months of Get Rich Slowly. I expect to make about $30,000 in the coming year. This is not peanuts. However, it’s not great pay either. I spend several hours every day reading books, searching web sites, and exchanging e-mail. And I write. I spend more time each week working on this site than I do at my day job.

I believe Get Rich Slowly is an atypical example. More normal, I think, are the results at my other blogs. My six-year-old personal site gets about 1100 visitors each day. It earns me an average of $120/month. I also run several minor blogs. They earn me about $20/month combined.

Music in the Shower — better than my singing

I want music everywhere–seamless coverage throughout my place. Here is one option for the shower.

“Kohler has released an in-shower loudspeaker developed in conjunction with Polk called the SoundTile, designed to match the shape, profile and finish of Kohler’s WaterTile bodysprays and showerheads, the company says. “

Each speaker is $295. Note though, that in-wall speakers, no matter the cost, sound like crap. But this may be good enough for the shower. If I owned a place, I would buy one. Installation would be expensive.

link

Picture of a Wooden Nickel, like my father always talked about

Another map of subway systems

http://www.radicalcartography.net/?subways

Subway systems compared

This link compares the relative extent of subway systems over the world. What would be even more interesting would be a comparison of which subway system stinks the most. I have transited on many of these subways, and plan on hitting the rest of them before I expire.

http://www.fakeisthenewreal.org/subway/

A couple of interesting ones that I have been on although the scale of the Paris one seems off, although it is purported to scale.

New York

DC

Paris

Seoul

Source for Cool Concert Posters - Philaarts.com

I bought a Decemberists concert poster recently from www.philaarts.com. great selection and good service, although you have to pay by check or paypal.