Nevertheless, check this asinine marketing promotion out. This is a promotion for a new TV station in Belgium. How in the world this crap promotion got a few million views is astounding.
The Youtube page says,
To launch the high quality TV channel TNT in Belgium we placed a big red push button on an average Flemish square of an average Flemish town. A sign with the text "Push to add drama" invited people to use the button. And then we waited... Discover here what happened or visit http://www.tnt-tv.be for more info.
In Japan, we say, ”ヤらせ” (yarase) which translates into "fake." This is fake from the first person who even pressed the button. I don't believe for a second that anyone who pressed the button wasn't a part of the promotion.
Like I said, this TV is an insult to your intelligence... 80% of everything on TV is fake.... The other 20% are commercials....
Look at those people in the square with their bikes.... There's not a person around who believes what they are seeing is real..... Damn! I'd sure hate being the people who have been paid to sit in a room and click the "view" button on Youtube to obtain a few million views.
"Facebook says, 'Privacy is theft,' because they're selling your lack of privacy to the advertisers who might show up one day." - Jaron Lanier
Well, the articles that will make one really want to start thinking about deleting their Facebook account are coming hard and fast. This time, a married woman finds out her husband has another wife through Facebook!
The same thing happened in the sixties! Just that word got out a different way.
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Facebook's automatic efforts to connect user through "friends" they may know recently led two Washington women to find out they were married to the same man, at the same time.
That led to the man, corrections officer Alan L. O'Neill, being slapped with bigamy charges.
According to charging documents filed Thursday, O'Neill married a woman in 2001, moved out in 2009, changed his name and remarried without divorcing her. The first wife first noticed O'Neill had moved on to another woman when Facebook suggested the friendship connection to wife No. 2 under the "People You May Know" feature.
"Wife No. 1 went to wife No. 2's page and saw a picture of her and her husband with a wedding cake," said Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist told The Associated Press.
If that were my spouse? Why, yes! I would politely inquire what this was all about!
Wife No. 1 then called the defendant's mother.
"An hour later the defendant arrived at (Wife No. 1's) apartment, and she asked him several times if they were divorced," court records show. "The defendant said, 'No, we are still married.'"
Neither O'Neill nor his first wife had filed for divorce, according to charging documents. The name change came in December, and later that month he married his second wife.
O'Neill allegedly told Wife No. 1 not to tell anybody about his dual marriages, that he would fix it, the documents state. But wife No. 1 alerted authorities.
"Facebook is now some place where people discover things about each other that end up reporting that to law enforcement," Lindquist said.
O'Neill, 41, was previously known at Alan Fulk. He has worked as a Pierce County corrections officer for five years, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said. He was placed on administrative leave after prosecutors charged him Thursday. He could face up to a year in jail if convicted.
His name is Alan Fulk? Well, I guess he Fulked up! Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!
Junior high school grade jokes aside, I think one year in jail is far too severe. This guy obviously has some sort of mental problem as one has to wonder, "Why in the world would he want two wives? Isn't one enough trouble as it is?" As Jerry Lee Lewis would counter: "Well, since I wasn't really married to my first wife then I didn't need a divorce!" Or some sort of twisted logic like that...
Seriously, I predict that something is going to come along that is like Facebook excepting it is more protective of your privacy (a friend recommended "Anonymousbook") and also really confines who your "friends" can be.
Another rip off of the gullible public has been perpetrated. 70 million viewers to the Invisible Children video. Millions of dollars donated. Now the truth comes out: KONY 2012 is just another cash-in like all the rest.
Six million people have died in the last decade in the Democratic Republic of Congo... But we don't hear about that! Why? The USA benefits from the proxy war in Congo. And Congo doesn't have resources we want.
The information I received this morning seems to confirm these suspicions. This part really sticks out:
Base salary for Invisible Children exec is about $85, 0000. When allowances and bonuses are added, these guys make over $160,000 a year...
...Is the Money you donate to Invisible Children and Kony2012 being given to the United States Government to capture Kony? Off course Not. Will the Money be sent to Africa to Help the African Poor People? Yes only only less than 10%. So what will Invisible Children do with the rest of the 90% of your money? Yes Think About it!
Here is the full text of the message I received.
Invisible Children Inc is a scam. 'Stop Kony 2012' is a scam too. Many people are upset at how Invisible Children Inc has been using the Joseph Kony Saga to cause sensationalism, create a way to collect more donations and enrich themselves.
The more money they collect, the more they pay themselves hefty bonuses. Base salary for Invisible Children exec is about $85, 0000. When allowances and bonuses are added, these guys make over $160,000 a year. Just think what this money they lavish themselves with, could do for the people in Africa for whom they claim to be collecting donations for.
Invisible Children Inc does NOT have an Independent and external Auditor. Their Financial Statements as submitted to the Charity Navigator web site cannot be independently verified. It should be assumed to be a cooked financial statement since it was submitted by their in house Auditor and can not be substantiated by a third party.
Invisible Children Inc Executives have retained expensive Lawyers and in the past have been threatening libel suits to any one who dares to question their financial operations or their ethical legitimacy. They have also used your donation money to hire expensive Washington lobbyists to influence policies to suit their objectives. There close social relationships with African Oppressive regimes have also ensured that they have been protected and shrouded in biased and lopsided misinformation for years.
For the last 2 years less than 10% of funds collected by Invisible Children are sent to the Ground to help the Ugandan Children. Previous to that, less than 30% of the money they collected was sent to Uganda to help the Ugandan People. A preliminary survey of all projects and activity on the Ground in Uganda to help the Uganda Children does not even total up to $1.5 Million of the $13 Million they have collected in donations so far.
Before Invisible Children Inc started, the Executive directors where Media arts students who went to Africa to look for project to farther their careers. They first went to Southern Sudan on a hit and miss venture and by just by chance they went farther south and stumbled upon the conflict in Northern Uganda. Since then they have capitalized on the Uganda -Joseph Kony War to spear head their media, film and music careers. They have also become stinky rich and drive in fancy cars and live in fancy houses with your donation money.
Now in2012, Invisible Children has created this STOP Kony 2012 video to mislead people to collect money to help catch Joseph Kony? The LRA Joseph Kony war, talked about in their video has ended over 3 years ago. Joseph Kony has Not been seen or heard from, for the last two years and is actually believed to be dead. The United Nations however has reported that villages in Central Africa have recently been raided and people killed by thugs believed to be the LRA soldiers of Joseph Kony.
What many people do not kow, is that over 5 months ago, the USA Government had already sent 100 combat marine soldiers to Uganda and Central Africa to catch Joseph Kony. These Marines are co-coordinating their efforts with the armies of Uganda, DR Congo, South Sudan, and Central African Republic in an effort to Catch Kony. How is the Money you donate going to be used help catch Joseph Kony? Does Invisible Children have an Army in Africa that they are collecting this money to equip for a mission to catch kony? On invisible children's donate website, they write that; "To bring home Joseph Kony’s child soldiers, it will take an army of individuals making a monthly commitment through TRI contributions" Is the Money you donate to Invisible Children and Kony2012 being given to the United States Government to capture Kony? Off course Not. Will the Money be sent to Africa to Help the African Poor People? Yes only only less than 10%. So what will Invisible Children do with the rest of the 90% of your money? Yes Think About it!
If you desire more information, Google search: KONY2012-IS-A-SCAM
Yes. Think about it. Another frickin' scam and millions of stupid people are falling for it.
"A cheap holiday in other people' misery" indeed... A very nice expensive (but cheap for the execs of KONY 2012) in other people's misery and on other people's dime.
Man Made Global Warming is a scam? It always was a scam? There is one thing that we can all take as a lesson in life and society and politics: When the government says that there is some problem and to fix that problem they need to tax "We the People" more, you'd better run as fast as you can the other way.
Like the war on terrorism, the war on poverty, thewar on drugs,the war on whatever you want; they are all scams and failures. Think about it: Is there anyone of us who thinks the government is competent? Is there anyone who thinks the government can fix even a pothole in the road without being over budget and way past deadline? No, right? Why does anyone think that the government could increase our taxes and fix the weather?
It's nonsense. The weather reports can't even predict correctly the weather next week, it is astounding that "scientists" and government claim they can predict the weather over the next twenty to one hundred years!
In early 2006, when the Man-Made Global Warming panic was just getting into full swing, I was the producer of an early morning drive time FM radio show in Tokyo. That show was what we in this business call a "Wide Show." A Wide Show is a variety program that also has news, weather, sports and the like. Our show also had music and bits of comedy dispersed here and there. It was lots of fun and a great experience.
One day, we had a Monty Python-esque comedy skit on the show whereby we parodied the great BBC program. The skit was "The Great Global Warming Debate." In that debate, we had on two "professors" with opposite opinions and asked them to argue the question of "Is there or is there not a problem with Man-made global warming?"
The build up to the skit was tremendous. We made it sound like the definitive argument was going to take place on our show. When the host asked the first professor, "Is there man-made global warming?" and that professor answered, "Yes!" then the host asked the next professor the same thing and he answered, "No!" That was the end of the debate and we ended the program. After all that fanfare and build up, it was a comedic anti-climax. We thought it was hilarious. One listener didn't think it was funny at all.
Writer's rendition of listener who "Didn't 'get' it."
Soon after the skit ended, the office telephone began ringing. It was unusual for that line to ring as it was early in the morning before office hours so I thought it might be an emergency so I answered. It was an extremely irate man on the other side. He was furious. He insisted that making light and fun of such a serious catastrophe as Man-made Global Warming was blasphemy and that the people responsible should be fired immediately. I told him it was and is a comedy skit and that he shouldn't mind about it.
He'd have none of that. He then demanded that I put the station manager on the line. Little did he know that I was the station manager. I told him to hold the line and then I composed myself and calmed down. I picked up the phone again and told him that I was the station manager. He reiterated his claims and I repeated mine. Finally, after he started cursing and threatening me, I told him that, "I'm sorry you are unhappy listening to the content of our station. If you really don't like it, there are other stations that you can listen to." Oh! That really set him off (I hate people who want to use censorship). It finally got so bad that he threatened to come down to the radio station and, get this, are you sitting down? He threatened to come down to the radio station and set it on fire!
I can never figure out how these Greens and earth and nature lovers can be so peaceful and at one with the universe and nature on the one hand and so militant and ready to kill people on the other.
After he threatened to burn the station down and kill us all with it, I told him that he was welcomed to try and that we'd be waiting for him with the police and fire department when he comes. Since his phone number was registered on the call list at the telephone company I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find him. I also promised to visit him in prison. I never heard from him againafter that.
That was 6 years ago. At that time, I had predicted on air and to many friends and people who would listen that this Man Made Global Warming business was all a scam. I knew it was a scam because, even from the start, it was government's of the world claiming that they needed to increase taxes and payments from the people to finance the fight against this new global terror. As a person who has been keeping track of this sort of thing and the current financial calamity that is upon us (and has been building up for 20 years) it was obvious to me that, if you followed the money trail, there was something awfully suspicious about the government's claim of Man-Made Global Warming.
Throw on top of that, my own personal experience of writing a 120 page thesis for my senior year in high school science class of "The Coming Ice Age" that we were lead to believe that was coming in 1975 ~ 1978 or so.
I predicted that this entire facade of Man Made Global Warming would collapse within 5 years. Just now, I was bragging to my wife about it and she said, "No one is talking about Man Made Global Warming anymore are they?"
"What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around on the streets and that's it."
Like my wife said, "No one is talking about Man Made Global Warming anymore, are they?" Well, honey, they aren't in Japan. But, unfortunately, some people overseas still are.
Yes, that's right, Mr. Martini, there is an Easter Bunny!
Well now, here comes some more information that's just going to bunch up the underwear of some believers in the polemic of Man Made Global Warming. It seems that Jan. 19, 2012 was the coldest day globally in 10 years.
Global temperatures are plummeting, and the temperature recorded by AMSU satellite of 251.858K on January 19 was the coldest of any day since at least 2002.
Yep. That's it. One sentence. Facts, ma'am. Just facts.
I wonder if this will make some nature lovers want to set people's houses on fire? After all, that is a brilliant counter argument, isn't it?
I have a report that Lady Gaga has ripped off her fans who bought a "Lady Gaga wristband". The proceeds from those wristbands were to be donated to the poor folks who suffered in Japan from the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Seems like, as of this date, no proceeds have been forthcoming.
That event brought out tons of charlatans who used other people's misery for financial gain. You'd think that someone who were as rich as Lady Gaga would make sure that the money (I'm sure it's not a lot) would get into the hands of those who really need it instead of going towards her next wardrobe prupose.
As I have written before, people like Hayden Panettiere don't really give a rat's ass about any dolphins or anything like that, they only care about fame. Just like jerks like U2's Bono who prop up charities and claim to care about poverty (yet give only 1%) or Sting with his BS about rain forests or the next Hollywood clown who makes noise about endangered monkeys, it's all just blah, blah, blah... Yadda, yadda, yadda. These people don't really give a sh*t about these things. Their "charities" and work are all promotions capitalizing on other people's misery and they constitute tax breaks.
In Hayden's case, if she really did care about the Dolphins, she'd still be talking about it... But, she doesn't. She doesn't because, you see, the advertising budget for that film is over with and, well, she does have a movie star career to attend to.
Far, far too often, these charities are just scams to evade taxes or just promotional gimmicks to make themselves look good.... But don't let my scorn for these fakes fool you. I also am a fair minded person, the Japanese Red Cross deserves heaps of criticism too.
Homeless and orphaned children in Japan after tsunami? Use their plight to rip off the public? Great idea! Cashing in on other people's misery! What an excellent marketing plan!
Well, now, we have Lady Gaga being accussed and sued in court for ripping off her fans for a charity to help the survivors of the March 11 disaster in Japan.
"Lady Gaga has been a champion for relief efforts in recovering Japan, but now the singer is facing allegations she pocketed donations that should have gone to the ravaged country.
The federal class action lawsuit alleges Gaga (real name Stefani Germonatta) jacked up the shipping costs on the "We Pray for Japan" wristbands she designed and sold on her website after the March earthquake and tsunami, keeping a portion of the money from each sale despite her promise that all proceeds would go to directly to relief efforts."
A class action lawsuit filed in the US claims that Lady Gaga failed to donate proceeds of her “relief wristband” to victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The suit also alleges that the singer “charged buyers an excessive $3.99 for shipping within the United States, against the actual cost of only $.50 cents.”
Lady Gaga is being sued in a $5 million class action suit for allegedly scamming a Japan relief charity.
The singer said on her website that all proceeds from the sale of the “We Pray For Japan” wristbands were going to the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
But a Michigan law firm says that’s not true.
According to the lawsuit filed by 1-800-Law-Firm, Gaga sold the bracelets for $5, plus $3.99 for shipping and handling, and 60 cents for taxes, but jacked up the price of the shipping costs in an effort to pocket the extra money.
The federal suit also claims Gaga never disclosed how much of the $5 bracelets was actually going to Japan relief, even though she included the money she allegedly pocketed as part of her claimed donation.
The lawsuit says Lady Gaga violated a number of federal racketeering laws as well as consumer protection laws from the alleged scam.
Welcome to 2012... The scams and criminal activity of Wall Street and their like continue to trickle down to the average person.
I think 2012 is going to be one wild ride. Oh, and make sure to buy Lady Gaga's records. You might as well get in on the fun of being screwed over by corporate greed.
Remember that silly sensationalist movie called "The Cove"? It was the documentary film about the annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan, where several hundred (thousand?) dolphins (of a species that are not on any endangered lists) are killed by fishermen. This distasteful and bloody event has been going on for centuries. The movie made some headlines because it was supposedly "banned" in Japan - It wasn't. It was never banned in Japan at all.
The claims that it was banned was a publicity stunt by that film's makers.
Hollywood lives on publicity stunts.
This article is not about the Dolphin slaughter or anything like that. It is about greed and the lows that people will go to to make money. It is about the vanity and shallowness of people from Hollywood and in show business in general.
Especially, this post is about the main actress in that movie, the Cove, Hayden Panettiere.
Hayden is the typical stupid Hollywood starlet who will do anything for fame.
After 30 years in show business, I've met many people like that.Sorry to burst some people's bubble, but, turn off the TV and put down the popcorn for a second...
As I have written before, people like Hayden Panettiere don't really give a rat's ass about any dolphins or anything like that, they only care about fame.
In Hayden's case, if she really did care about the Dolphins, she'd still be talking about it... But, she doesn't. She doesn't because, you see, the advertising budget for that film is over with and, well, she does have a movie star career to attend to.
So much for... sniff.... sniff... actually caring!.... I mean, really... She's an actress after all. She doesn't really have to care. Isn't acting like she cares enough for her fans? Why do fans always have to "take, take, take"?
For the most part, these famous people who support these charities do it as a tax break or a vehicle for promotion. They don't really care about actually making any effort. This is the real world, folks. That's the way it is. Live with it.
Frankly speaking, I don't think that that movie's main starlet, out of work Hayden Panettiere, ever cared a bit about those dolphins... She faked tears for the promotion of that movie but now, since she's out of a job, she's not faking any tears. She needs money and is charging $30 a pop for autographs.
Charging fans for autographs? Are you kidding me? Is she that desperate?
Are times that tough Hayden? Actress Pantierre charges $30 an autograph at a fan convention.
She found herself without a regular television role after Heroes was cancelled last year.
But it seems times have got a lot tougher for Hayden Panettiere.
The 22-year-old actress spent today at a fan convention in Toronto signing autographs for the princely sum of $30 a pop.
"I'm out of work... sniff... Please buy my autograph..."
And if fans wanted a photo opportunity with the star, they would need to cough up $45 for the privilege, according to an accompanying sign.
The actress wore a low key grey T-shirt with her hair pulled into a ponytail as she greeted convention goers.
The four day Fan Expo Canada Convention in Toronto is for fans of horror movies, comic books, science fiction, animé and video games.
$30 for an autograph and $45 dollars for a photo? Excellent. And, I'm sure with her sincere efforts to stop the killing of Flipper and the rest of his dolphin friends, Hayden will be donating all of that money to her favorite "Stop the Dolphin" kill charity...
Or is that "so last week"? Just like AIDS, Global Warming, whatever, is the dolphin killing just no longer trendy amongst the Hollywood elite and their fans who watch way too much TV?
Since tuna sells for a dollar a can, I wonder if she'd trade me her autograph for 30 cans of tuna?
------
Note: There are many good charities in Japan:Rock Challenge Japan: http://www.rockchallenge.jp/
Save Minami Soma Project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113980158685755/just to name a few....
--------NOTE:
Some background about the Cove; to promote the film, the producers of the film made the claim that, "If all of the Japanese people could just see the film once, they'd ban dolphin fishing forever." I wrote in Japan Bans the Cove and Other Atrocities how that was a bunch of rubbish.
If the producers really were sincere in that thinking, they'd make the film free for view to everyone on Youtube. But they don't, so their purpose is to sell tickets and make money to people going to see the movie or buying the DVD.
When I pointed that discrepancy out, some people criticized me by saying that the film's producers "have to make money some way." I countered that doesn't make sense as many films are available for free on Youtube and that Google gives away everything for free and they are one of the biggest money making companies in the world (not to mention Facebook, Twitter, etc., etc.)
It is good that there are enough people who are intelligent enough to see through this sort of BS.
"...the crowd against dolphin hunting (in their twisted logic) say that the dolphins shouldn't be killed and eaten as the meat is pumped full of mercury and so it is poisonous to eat. If so, then that's great, isn't it? Then let these people kill the dolphins, eat the meat and then they die. Problem solved!"
If people are so stupid to want to eat poison, then let them do as they wish. Or do people think the government should outlaw unhealthy behavior? If so, then let's outlaw smoking, drinking, sweets, all red meats and really make it a heavy crime to be over weight.
The Japanese schlock group SCAM have joined in with the effort of "helping" (themselves) and looking like they are actually doing something besides holding a mirror and combing their hair by releasing an album of their old and tired songs in a new song order on a new record.
There will be nothing new recorded for this album at all and the boys really will do nothing to actually help anyone in need after the March 11 disaster. They won't lift a finger to help anyone but their record label, agency and bank.
Like I said, what they will do is allow old music to be recompiled into a different order and then repackaged and sold as if it is a new product.
The real kicker is, even though this schlock is being advertising as a charity effort and proceeds will be donated, the fact of the matter is only about 5% of sales will go towards any charity.
You'd think that with a project that his a supposed charity that is reusing old material, that they could give a bit more than that...
J-pop group SMAP have announced the songs on their new album “SMAP AID,” which goes on sale Aug 17 to help raise funds for recovery efforts in the Tohoku region. The album features the group’s 15 most popular songs chosen by their fans. It will be the group’s first “best” album in 10 years.
The top three tracks are “Original Smile” (from June 1994), “Hazimari no uta” (from September 2008), and “Not Alone” (from May 2005).
The album, which will sell for 3,570 yen, comes with a yellow or red handkerchief — red representing health, and yellow representing happiness. Two hundred yen from the sale of each album will go toward the “Marching J” charity project.
According to SMAP’s management, Johnny’s Entertainment, many Japanese fans wrote to the agency following the March earthquake and tsunami disaster to say that SMAP songs cheered them up in the wake of the tragedy. The messages led to the album’s concept.
They say that there's one born every minute!... Many fans wrote to the agency and said the songs cheered them up? This lead to the album's concept? Yes! That and the temptation to steal from suckers was too great to resist.
Two hundred yen out of a ¥3,570 sale goes to charity!? Here's what little a*swipe SCAM singer says as he's admiring himself in the mirror:
"Gee, I'd like to really help those poor people in Tohoku... As long as I don't have to do anything, make any effort, and it doesn't hurt my pocketbook."
Korean artists are doing great in Japan. Japan keeps trying to push sh*tty artists like SCAM on the Korean public. Any wonder why Japanese artists are not as popular over there as Korean artists are over here?
Let me finish this article with an intelligent comment: "Those twits in SCAM might be nice guys - no one could blame them for having any brains or morals - but their agency are douchebags." This is an even worse charity than Red Cross. At least Red Cross has been able to get a lame 51% of the money to the survivors.
5%!? Any media in Japan - especially the English media - who report on this nonsense without a commentary are just as big a bunch of jerks as SCAM and all their members.
No wonder English rags like Metropolis and Japan Today are going bankrupt. On the one hand they criticize Japan and Japan's "entertainment"... On the other hand, they bootlick because they need sponsors for their trashy rags.
