From My Bottom Step

The Corporate Graveyard

The following is a brief moment of irony, brought to you by the global marketplace:

As billions of taxpayer dollars flow into Citibank, I couldn’t help but appreciate the irony of this quote made in 1981 by Walter B. Wriston, the brilliant banker and former chairman of Citicorp:
The philosophy of the divine right of kings died hundreds of years ago, but not, it seems, the divine right of inherited markets. Some … Continue Reading

Adversaulting

It seems that there’s just no getting away from advertising any more. No matter which way you turn, there’s a message coming at you to buy, buy, buy. No money? No problem! And never mind that most of what you buy today will end up in a landfill (or worse) tomorrow…
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Japan’s Indefensible Whale Slaughter

Commercial whaling decimated 8 of the 10 great whale species. 01 The International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling in 1986. But some countries have continued to kill whales by using “scientific” exceptions. 01
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Regulating Gift Cards

“You’ve got to wonder if these … Continue Reading

Torpedo One… Away!

                    
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The Fight For Personal Privacy: Already Lost?

                    
Dan Brown’s post about stealth advertising (’There’s a new word for product placement: it’s now called “integration”‘; 2007/11/28) and his subsequent post about the modern technological capability to monitor your personal behaviour (’TiVo in Canada’; 2007/11/30) reminded me of the movie in which the multimedia display ads in various store windows automatically assailed one of the movie characters (personalized their content as he walked past). Somebody help me out… what’s the movie’s title?
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Loretta Lau’s Timmy Petition

I’d like to draw your attention to an online petition which attempts to influence Tim Hortons® (Canada’s largest food service operator) to do more toward addressing it’s harmful behaviour than simply putting anti-litter messages on it’s packaging (click HERE to view the petition).
I’d also like to highlight a similar initiative … Continue Reading

Proposed New 2008 Water Rates

At it’s meeting yesterday, Board of Control received a staff update with respect to the water rates. Randy Richmond writes about it in today’s paper (”Lower water rates on tap”; London Free Press; 2007/11/15).
A proposed drop in rates for residential users would be offset by an increase in rates for “industry, commercial businesses, highrises and institutions.” Long overdue, in my opinion (read my last post on … Continue Reading