Subliminal negativity may prove effective !

In 1957 James Vicary a marketing researcher coined the term subliminal advertising. Subliminal meaning approximately under the threshold. Vicary is also the man of “Eat Popcorn”,” drink Coca Cola” and "Hungry?" planted-in-the-movie-frames fame to boost sales .Years later he admitted that it was a marketing ploy for his Subliminal Projection company .Rumors, conspiracy theories and urban legends still surround subliminal advertising but some truth to the theory appears in a recent study .However in a manner of speaking the results are mostly negative. The study's author claims the results show conclusively that people can perceive the emotional value of subliminal messages and people are much more attuned to negative words .So don’t eat popcorn, don’t drink Coca Cola and not hungry ? may be the pitch in the subliminal. Nah,No way.

The Journal Emotion publisheda study which provides evidence that people are able to process emotional information from subliminal images and demonstrates conclusively that even under such conditions, information of negative value is better detected than information of positive value.

In the study, Professor Nilli Lavie and colleagues showed fifty participants a series of words on a computer screen. Each word appeared on-screen for only a fraction of second – at times only a fiftieth of a second, much too fast for the participants to consciously read the word. The words were either positive (e.g. cheerful, flower and peace), negative (e.g. agony, despair and murder) or neutral (e.g. box, ear or kettle). After each word, participants were asked to choose whether the word was neutral or 'emotional' (i.e. positive or negative), and how confident they were of their decision.
The researchers found that the participants answered most accurately when responding to negative words – even when they believed they were merely guessing the answer.
Professor Lavie believes the research may have implications for the use of subliminal marketing to convey messages, both for advertising and public service announcements such as safety campaigns.

"Negative words may have more of a rapid impact," she explains. "'Kill your speed' should be more noticeable than 'Slow down'.More controversially, highlighting a competitor's negative qualities may work on a subliminal level much more effectively than shouting about your own selling points."

So remember don’t buy popcorn

Vermont North by Hand Studio Tour

Shameless Commerce anyone ?


Annual Autumn Studio Tour
Vermont North by Hand Artisans’ Co-op will be holding its annual Open Studio Weekend Tour on the weekend of October 3rd and 4th. . For two days, the public will have an opportunity to visit some of the upper Connecticut River Valley’s best artisans and crafts people in their working environments. Workshops and studios in Corinth, Bradford, Fairlee, Topsham, Newbury and Orange will be participating.

Twenty workshops and studios will be displaying, selling and demonstrating a wide variety of handcrafted items made in Vermont. Original works of pottery, hand-painted silk clothing, sheepskin coats and accessories, hand-colored etchings, and watercolor paintings will be on view. Other artists include a cabinet maker that builds furniture from reclaimed antique lumber, and a rustic furniture maker who will demonstrate his portable sawmill. Food will be available at the Corinth Town Hall.

Vermont North by Hand is a non-profit artists’ cooperative which has sponsored this open studio tour for four years. Vermont North promotes and supports the appreciation of the arts through events, studio tours and educational programs.
Studios will be open on October 3rd & 4th, 10am to 5pm.

Art information ,brochures,maps and contact information are available online
Visit: Vermont North by Hand Artisans Co-op for complete information, including a list of this year’s participating artists.

furniture pictured by Cookeville Woodworking

“And we are very transparent”

Wonderfully timed in the same week Vermont Gov. Douglas completes his plan to lay off 300 state workers the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation has a “My Turn”opinion piece in the Burlington Free Press .Commissioner Gibbs’ noted earlier triumph had been to put up a Facebook page for the Dept or Forests and Parks . Now he shamelessly borrows language reminiscent of the New Deal and recalls the CCC .One can only marvel at the moxie of these small government fellows.

At Gov. Jim Douglas' direction, the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation is doing everything it can to generate economic activity and create jobs. We're pleased to report that your investment of tax dollars is achieving important results and producing meaningful returns.

Earlier the Governor Douglas and his State Stimulus Recovery Czar took a stand against placing inexpensive (signs can cost as little as $300.00) ARRA signs at Vermont projects notifying state run Federal stimulus funded highway projects .He was reportedly angered when a photograph of him at an event was published with one of the orange signs in the image.

Jason Gibbs is not orange but is much more costly and basically serves the same purpose as the scorned ARRA stimulus road signs.
The Governor’s personal human signage continues ………..

Our projects meet the strictest definition of "shovel ready" and are moving forward swiftly. We've targeted long-term, infrastructure projects that create good trade jobs -- carpentry, plumbing, masonry, electric, excavating, roofing and others -- critical to immediate and sustained economic growth. And we are transparent. It is important that taxpayers and policymakers see the immediate economic and lasting environmental values of investing in these natural resources.

also at Green Mountain Daily

National Punctuation Day to feature baking contest ! !

Bake a coma shaped cake
or bake a cake period. Hyphen meat-loaf?
Alas,its too late for me to gain any success at proper punctuation but help is there for those that seek it !
The National Punctuation Day webpage notes that the day has achieved national recognition and worldwide media attention since former newspaperman Jeff Rubin founded the holiday in 2004, with newspaper coverage from Manila to London and from Seoul to Seattle, in addition to broad radio and TV coverage in the United States—including a short segment on Regis and Kelly in 2008.

RULES FOR THE NATIONAL PUNCTUATION DAY BAKING CONTEST

1. Entrants must send a recipe and a sample of their cookie, cake, pastry, doughnut, or bread baked in the shape of a punctuation mark to National Punctuation Day, 1517 Buckeye Court, Pinole, CA 94564.

2. Entrants must send two print photos—one putting the item in an oven before baking and the other taking it out when it’s done. Make sure we can see the baked goods clearly.

3. First-, second-, and third-place winners will receive a box of non-edible NPD goodies, and all entrants’ photos and recipes will be published on the National Punctuation Day website.

4. All entries must be received by September 30, 2009

From tranches to toilet paper in Alabama

The banking crisis continues to be felt in unusual ways.Jefferson County Alabama got caught up in high flying credit deals several years ago in an attempt to finance its sewer system. They bought 17 interest rate swaps from JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America with the intention of hedging interest rate risk. Officials got the county involved in complex interest rate swap contracts and the walls came crashing down on the County’s finances. Finances were so bad that this past August the sheriff asked the state to pay his police force or send in the National Guard. The crisis continues to inflict hardship on many of the citizens.

Now Jefferson County has frozen all bulk purchases. The jail, which houses an average of 1,200 inmates, now has on hand about three to four days' worth of toilet paper, when it used to have enough for one to three months said Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Randy Christian

As a result,jail trusties are no longer stocking toilet paper when it runs out.Instead,inmates must request it as needed

"Rest assured that every inmate has the basic necessities that are required and needed"said Christian

Civic minded lawyers are donating toilet paper to the Jefferson County Jail and encouraging others to do the same, after some of their incarcerated clients reported that it's in short supply or even rationed. Perhaps JP Morgan ,Lehman or Bank of America might donate.

"I'm not pointing fingers at the sheriff's department or the (county) commission," said Lawyer John Lentine, who on Saturday dropped off more than 400 rolls of toilet paper at the jail. "What I'm saying is when you house people, you have a legal duty to provide basic needs."

*tranche ..In structured finance is one of a number of related securities offered as part of the same transaction. The word tranche is French for slice, section, series, or portion. In the financial sense of the word, each bond is a different slice of the deal's risk.

Rhymes with war

Twenty years ago, stories were common about drunken USSR conscript soldiers in Afghanistan prior to their defeat. Afghanistan has a long history of defeating armies from far off lands on long and ill defined missions. In 2001 a popular movie in Kabul which played to packed crowds was a tale about the mojahedin fighters defeating drunken Russian soldiers in the mountains of the Panjshir valley.

History doesn’t repeat itself but it does have a tendency to rhyme. All courses can be altered and nothing is certain, to state the obvious, but the war in Afghanistan is rhyming historically as it enters in eighth year and a most deadly spell for US and NATO forces. In Afghanistan now as in Vietnam we are supporting a government lead by a president with questionable support from the population that controls only the Capitol and small patches of the country. US and NATO troops on a long mission with no clear end point are surrounded by a potentially hostile populace and suffer the stress.
James Galloway in an article about the Afghan war recalling the Powell doctrine writes the national treasure we’ve invested in that effort, has propped up an ineffective and corrupt Kabul regime. Its only economic success has been the restoration of the opium trade. Afghanistan is now the world’s leading producer of opium and heroin, whereas under the Taliban government that was a death penalty offense.
In early September after a bombing raid (a precision raid) by NATO forces killed 125 civilians it was reported that

….The head of the international forces in Afghanistan has banned alcohol at its headquarters after troops were found to be too drunk or hung-over to respond quickly to news of a deadly air strike.
A group of Macedonian guards were sent home this year because they were discovered drunk on duty, while protecting the back gate.
The problem became so acute that military police started breathalysing drivers and pedestrians around the base.

The Vermont National Guard will soon deploy approximately 1,500 troops to Afghanistan on a mission that has evolved from training and mentoring into potentially broader security tasks. Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie,head of the Vermont National Guard said clarity on what the troops will be doing "hasn't improved much in the last couple days." "It's still changing. The reorganization of some structures in Afghanistan is still being worked out,"
Also this past Thursday the president of Macedonia was in Vermont to announce joint training of 80 troops with the Vermont National Guard.

posted also on Green Mountain Daily

Un-Cola Obama

Socialistic-communistic-liberalistic-fascistic plan to destroy the Pepsi Generation ™
Is Obama going too far attempting too much, over reach? US Legislators have floated an idea which bubbled to the surface of mitigating health care costs with a possible tax on soft. First the alleged death panels now he wants to tax our sugar water .The president even went so far as to suggest that perhaps the tax should be explored and that people may be drinking too much soda.

‘‘I actually think it’s an idea that we should be exploring,” Obama said in an interview with Men’s Health magazine going on sale this week. “There’s no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda.”

No doubt part of the long term socialistic-communistic-liberalistic plan to destroy the Pepsi Generation ™ New York City health officials have unveiled a subway bill board ad campaign that feature images of globs of fat flowing out of what appears to be coke poured out over ice .
Is this minimizing obesity? The beverage industry released a statement claiming that the NYC health dept. ad campaign by singling out sugary soft drinks ran the danger of minimized obesity .

Like most foods, soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages are a source of calories. Simply naming one food source as a unique contributor minimizes a disease as complex as obesity.

- How or why targeting a heavily promoted ubiquitous product known to help cause obesity minimized the issue was not explained.

Coke’s CEO said recently of what he called governments efforts to tell people what to eat and drink . “If it worked, the Soviet Union would still be around.”
It’s the real thing ….
In 2001, the soft-drink industry included approximately five hundred U.S. bottlers with more than 183,000 employees, and it achieved retail sales of more than $61billion . Americans that year consumed an average of 55 gallons of soft drinks per person, up from 48 in 1990 and 34 in 1980.
A recent Bloomberg survey rated coke as the best world wide brand name above IBM and Microsoft even McDonalds

Read my lips, No new jobs

Plenty of stories this week about the Jobless Recovery we are supposed to be in the midst of .Its a jobless recovery . Would that be analogous to a foodless meal? We declare this dinner is technically a meal but no food will be served.

Wikipedia explains further and not surprisingly the term is “Bushian” in its origins. How can a grateful nation ever get even ...eh I mean repay that family?
Jobless recovery or jobless growth [!] is a phrase used by economists to describe the recovery from a recession which does not produce strong growth in employment. The phrase originated in the early 1990s in the United States to describe the economic recovery at the end of Pres. George H.W.Bush’s term.

No strong job growth for some time stated Ben Bernanke in a speech this week,

"Unfortunately, unemployment will be slow to come down. It will come down but it may take some time," he said. "Obviously, that's a very serious concern."

The US unemployment rate for August stood at a 26-year high of 9.7 per cent as 216,000 jobs were lost, while analysts say unemployment could yet reach 10 per cent.
As unemployment lingers state, municipal and local budgets are stressed to find revenue to cover their operating costs. Higher taxes are being considered on those most able to afford them .The ones that did so well in the past years of prosperity may be asked to contribute to the common good .
But an article in the Washington Post helpfully warns us away not to be tempted to tax those that can most afford it as they too feel the pain . World's Wealthy Pay a Price in Crisis: Nations Raise Taxes, Tighten Regulations.….In this land of inherited privilege and celebrity billionaires, it no longer pays as much to be rich.
It no longer pays to be rich! Does our suffering know no bounds, not only a jobless recovery but do we now have wealth-less wealthy? The article continues with a plea for sympathy and understanding for those at the top …But for some, it is beginning to feel like governments are piling on when it comes to the rich -- who, through lost real estate and stock values, have already shed untold billions

Salmon, Moose tied

Vermont State Auditor of Accounts Tom Salmon recently bolted the Democratic Party and joined the ranks of Vermont Republican Party. Salmon son of a former Democratic governor made his jump over a week ago.

How big a slash did the Salmon switching partys story make?
Moose, 7
Salmon, 7

A search of Vermont's Times-Argus newspaper shows that Pete the Moose and Tom the Republican are tied for the number of stories about them in the last 14 days. Pete the Moose, the tamed moose(raised in captivity and unable to get along with his fellow moose ) you may recall lives in violation of state regulations on captive hunting preserve
The latest stories today? A back grounder piece on Vermont party switching in general and news that the moose now has a lawyer representing him.

Extremely stupid and incredibly close

Cheney,still the hero of Vermont Northeast Kingdom's Caledonian Record?
This is Vermont Caledonian-Record’s Sept 11th editorial plea that we heed the warnings of Dick Cheney.

“Former Vice President Dick Cheney is right when he warns that those who wish to hamstring our military and our intelligence agencies would cripple the country's ability to defend itself.”

In the Caledonian Record’s remembrance of that day Cheney’s warning stood out among the standard “he keep us safe” nonsense .It stood out more than their conveniently failing to remember the anthrax attacks on Vermont Sen.Leahy and others when claiming Bush kept us safe after Sept. 11th. Why let the facts get in the way of the “He kept us safe” meme? Torture,open ended detention , two wars, eight years and still stupid.
Maybe it’s just a little Caledonian nostalgia and a wish on their part to go back to the glory days of 2003 when the National Review could gush in all seriousness “What of our vice president? Is he, too, a "daddy politician"? You bet, as Donald Rumsfeld would say. You get the feeling that things are going to be all right if Mr. Cheney is on the case.”

Some insight from someone that knows………………..

In a recent interviewCol. Lawrence Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to Bush Secretary of State Colin Powel when asked ,

“They started things and had no idea what their ultimate plan was. What, you really intend to hold people forever without charging them with anything?”
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, said “I’ve come to the conclusion that the man truly is — whether he was that way when I knew him before, when he was Secretary of Defense, I don’t know, that’s not at issue with me any more — the man now is just crazy,"

also posted on GreenMountainDaily

Its Monday ,want some weasel coffee?

They say it was a brave man that ate the first oyster. Well other and even braver people exist .

Kopi Luak or Civet coffee

is made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet and other related civets. The civets eat the berries, but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Local lore in Vietnam has given the name "weasel coffee" to civet coffee, in what is considered the closest recognizable translation to English.

Many consumers question whether civet coffee is safe and sanitary, and whether it contains e-coli bacteria. It is professed by producers that the enzymes in the digestive tract, as well as the rigorous washing and sun drying of the beans, help to eliminate bacteria, along with the high temperature roasting process, and that the coffee is entirely safe.

Believe it or not as you wish

They will bet your life on it !

Sub-prime mortgage death or Collateralized death obligations
Hindsight is a wonderful thing .Anyone can look back now and see the results of bundling sub-prime mortgage debt, credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations trading them en masse was a bad and poorly regulated enterprize.The current down turn we now enjoy is a result of that market of sub-prime debt among other things.
Naturally big banks are, according to the New York Times seeking to replicate that model which was so much fun while it lasted. Mistakes were made but … “While that idea was, in retrospect, badly flawed, Wall Street is convinced that it can solve the risk riddle with securitized life settlement policies.”

The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.
The earlier the policyholder dies, the bigger the return — though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money.

Experts claim this is different "death is not correlated to the rise and fall of stocks" .Opportunities to manipulate this emerging market? Only the most far fetched conspiracy addle minded person would make a jump that big .Beside what are the things deaths are correlated to? Deaths are correlated to public health policies, food supplies, global climate change and wars .Wall Street is convinced it can get it right this time and solve the risk with securitized life settlement policies.

Goldman Sachs has developed a tradable index of life settlements, enabling investors to bet on whether people will live longer than expected or die sooner than planned. The index is similar to tradable stock market indices that allow investors to bet on the overall direction of the market without buying stocks.
Spokesmen for Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

In many ways, banks are seeking to replicate the model of subprime mortgage securities, which became popular after ratings agencies bestowed on them the comfort of a top-tier, triple-A rating. An individual mortgage to a home buyer with poor credit might have been considered risky, because of the possibility of default; but packaging lots of mortgages together limited risk, the theory went, because it was unlikely many would default at the same time.
While that idea was, in retrospect, badly flawed, Wall Street is convinced that it can solve the risk riddle with securitized life settlement policies.

----------------Future oversight ,regulation ? Hard to know exactly but ………………………

The U.S. banks are pouring money into campaign contributions and lobbying efforts -- and the total that could bring in by fending off a bill to regulate derivatives trading is 358 times more than what they've spent on politicking since the start of the 2008 election cycle.
Together, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have spent $97.8 million on lobbying and campaign contributions (including donations from both the employees and political action committees of these companies) since 2007.
As five of the all-time top donors, these companies have strong financial ties to Congress. Perhaps it's no wonder, then, that the derivatives market hasn't faced much (if any) regulation during its 30 years of existence. These banks have also supported the party now in power, giving Democrats 63 percent of their total campaign contributions since the start of the 2008 election cycle.

Open Secrets

BP Find reopens debate about oil supplies

Note :No relationship exists real or implied between the BP of Sneigwh and the corporate BP of Oil.......Just a great headline .

BP's find,peak oil and you

The discovery could be as large as Forties field in North Sea and comes hard on heels of 8.8bn barrel find by Iran.
Apparently a great short term boost BP’s stock price .
However in the long term …..
Jeremy Leggett,chairman of the renewable power company Solarcentury, and a key peak energy specialist. Said that it would take many years for BP to bring any Tiber fields onstream, pointing out that the huge Kashagan find in the Caspian Sea, in which BP has sold its stake, was meant to produce its first oil in 2005 but is now targeting 2013 as a start-up date.

A specialist in oil at consulting firm
said “The question is what is the quality of the reservoir, what is the quality of the oil, whether it will flow and what will be the cost of getting it out,” said Ross, a former BP chemist. “A lot of technology has yet to be developed that will be necessary to exploit this discovery.”

Curious Future for Health Care Legislation

At the start, the polls showed good support for health care reform. A Democratic House and the Senate; this time it would work differently than the Clinton attempt years ago. With polls showing public support, it could be fixed, right? Change.
The curious future of health care legislation may now determine the future of Obama's term.

Late yesterday leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus wrote to Obama saying “A health reform bill without a robust public option will not achieve the health reform this country so desperately needs,” the letter continues. “We cannot vote for anything less…..We look forward to meeting with you regarding a robust public option in any final health reform bill and request that that meeting take place as soon as possible,”

Obama needed a reminder even during the campaign in 2008 about where a big chunk of his support was coming from. An online petition and letter from the Nation Magazine forwarded to Obama urged him to follow up his rhetoric with support of progressive issues. Part of the letter read We recognize that compromise is necessary in any democracy…………. But retreating from the stands that have been the signature of your campaign will weaken the movement whose vigorous backing you need in order to win and then deliver the change you have promised.

First Snowe , then squeeze a caucus.

Maybe it was predicable .Here from an article in late 2008 about Obama and his Chicago guys. The author a reporter with long Chicago experience who wrote in the Washington Independent said of the Obama Chicago team By and large, this is a bunch of pragmatic deal makers who view ideology — especially extreme left-wing ideology — as a weakness.
This seems relevant with news that the White House is still negotiating for a compromise bill with Maine Republican Olympia Snow. Snowe is perhaps the last remaining Republican member of what had been the bi-partisan "Gang of Six".Now a "Gang of One". Still searching for a middle where none exists.
CNN reports that the compromise would not include a public option but leave the door open for a public option provision added at a later date.
The Plum Line blog says should Obama jettison the public option, progressives will come under tremendous pressure to back the plan anyway. White House advisers will likely insist that liberals mustn’t deny the president a historic victory and enable a defeat that could cripple the first African-American presidency

Vermont’s Lame Duck Governor Takes Flight [s]

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas became a lame duck by choice last week making the surprise announcement that he will not seek re-election to governor in 2010

Governor Douglas with his near term travel plans in mind may have spoken with some unintended candor when he said"The rewards of this job are many," adding that he is not running for any other office.
Thus thankfully putting to rest the persistent speculation about a Palin /Douglas ticket for 2012.She of course recently resigned rather than finish her term as governor of Alaska.Palin said in her resignation “I thought about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks… travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade – as so many politicians do.”
The notoriously tightfisted budget hawk and newly lame ducked Vermont Governor had the travel news for us this week.

Off to France
He will be enjoying the rewards of quite a bit of travel as he takes flight to France in September as the guest of the French government to investigate potential markets, export/import opportunities and resource exchange for Vermont agricultural producers.

And then off to Asia
Tentatively scheduled later in October the governor will take a previously announced trip to Asia which will include stops in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. This will be an overseas trade mission flying with Vermont business leaders to promote among other issues the Federal EB-5 immigration program.
This is a Federal program through which an individual can for a $500,000(half the amount required elsewhere in the US) investment in a US business gain citizenship. The investment must be one that will create 10 jobs before residency is granted.

posted also at Green Mountain Daily