Daily Dose of Common Sense

Technology can be overwhelming, no doubt about it. But if anything, that should make you more eager to do your homework before buying, not less. Otherwise, you will get ripped off.

So, why is it that so many otherwise wary consumers, who would smack down a car dealer trying to sell them “serial number glass etching”, get duped into buying expensive computer and A/V cables they don’t need? Because we fear what we don’t understand.

Cables are one of the highest margin items any electronics or office retailer sells. That 10 foot Ethernet patch cord at the office superstore that costs $18? Well, it works no better than one you can buy on-line for $3 (or less), and both are quite likely to have been made in the same factory in China. Likewise for USB.

Cables for your new flat screen TV can be even more overpriced, because now you are contending with marketing-driven brands. There’s no doubt these high-priced cables are engineered superbly, but there’s also no doubt they are overkill when compared to a no-name cable that meets the same specifications but doesn’t have to cover the cost for throwing expensive parties in Hollywood.

Even the moderately overpriced cables are a rip-off. When I recently received a flat-screen TV as a gift, I only had the cables to hook it up like my old TV, low-def analog. The local electronics shops had 6-foot HDMI (combined digital video & audio) cables for no less than $50, with the cool brands costing over $100.

By resisting the (admittedly HUGE) temptation to buy them on the spot, I was able to get very nice, good spec, gold-plated cables from a well-known web retailer (whose 2-day free-shipping plan I’m on) for $6. That is not a typo. For three cables my decision to wait saved me at least $150.

The key, of course, is being able to wait. Like the convenience store that charges double or triple for a bottle of soda, retailers count on you needing the cable right now.

So, when you are researching your next computer or electronics purchase, don’t forget to look into the cables you’ll need as well. With the money you save, you can order a spare (I didn’t need that 3rd HDMI cable) AND pay for dinner. Nothing goes with a new flat-screen TV like free take-out.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: Mathieu Ramage

“It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.”
–Robert Green Ingersoll

(Ingersoll, 1833-1899, was an American Statesman and Orator, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of atheism.)

Here’s a clue, you tax deadbeats: First, pay your taxes. We do. What makes you think you’re above the law? Second, if you’re going to be a deadbeat, please go ahead and post pictures of your big new sailboat or share information about your new high-paying job on Facebook or MySpace. Why? Because the taxman has gotten smarter. Many state revenue agents have started to use social media to track down tax deadbeats.

State revenue agents have begun nabbing scofflaws by mining information posted on social-networking Web sites, from relocation announcements to professional profiles to financial boasts.

In Minnesota, authorities were able to levy back taxes on the wages of a long-sought tax evader after he announced on MySpace that he would be returning to his home town to work as a real-estate broker and gave his employer’s name. The state collected several thousand dollars, the full amount due.

I love it when authorities make arrests by using the criminals’ stupidity against them. Every one of these deadbeats deserve what they get. You can argue that we shouldn’t have to pay taxes, or that our tax rates are too high. But, one or two people shouldn’t be allowed to dodge. Pay up like the rest of us!

Photo courtesy of Flickr: Paul Keleher

Spam is the bane of every email account. Emails you don’t want from people you don’t know, usually trying to sell you something you don’t need. Many aren’t even in your native language. According to one company in California, spam volumes have increased four-fold in the last six months. Guess it’s one of the few areas that’s booming in this recession.

Here’s an email that slipped past my spam filter and recently landed in my in-box. Both annoying and nebulous, I had to laugh over this one. Does this really work on anyone? (I sure hope not.)

Hello,

I am Mr. XX, supervisor on investment in Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong.; I have a sensitive, confidential brief from Hong Kong and I am asking for your partnership in re-profiling funds ($18,500,000.00 USD).

Hmmm….sounds like a lot of money. What, exactly, does “re-profiling” funds entail? Is that similar to what they do to criminals on CSI? If I can get a lab coat and microscope out of the deal, I’m in!

What I require from you is your honest co-operation and I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you and I from any breach of the law. Please accept my apologies, keep my confidence and disregard this email if you do not appreciate this proposition I have offered you.

Very polite. Yet, not informative. I still don’t have any idea what is going on. Why do we need protection from the law? This all seems very clandestine.

All confirmable documents to back up this fund shall be made available to you, as soon as I receive your reply, I shall let you know what is required of you.

Will this message self-destruct in thirty seconds?

I can tell the spammers what they DO need, and that is an editor. (I’m available if they want someone to fix punctuation, grammar, and spelling mistakes.)

Don’t ever reply to spam. This ploy is obviously a scam, and these are awful people looking to do you harm. If you’re overly curious and want to see what kind of nuts run these scams, check out Dean Cameron’s Spam Scam Scam. Cameron responded to one of the Nigerian spam emails and began a correspondence with the spammers. The results became a live show, and it’s hilarious.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: borman818

Just spotted a woman in my local Target store wearing a homemade, airbrushed tank top that read “Wet Pussy.” Um, OK. I’m sure at times it is wet. Other times, perhaps dry or irritated. What if it were itchy? Would you put that on your clothing?

I would have snapped a picture of said shirt, but trust me–this did not look like the kind of woman who would take kindly to being the subject of a surreptitious photo. I just needed to buy my Go-Gurt and orange juice without getting punched.

I thought I was pretty progressive when it came to women and their sexuality. But, this one was too much for me. It’s not just a matter of being comfortable with your body and with sex. This is a fashion statement (and I do mean statement!) that doesn’t just cross the line of good taste–it rockets past the line at hyper-speed.

So, to recap:

Family store + inappropriate clothing = bad idea

Now, who wants to let that woman know?

Ladies, get a grip.

In their September issue, Glamour magazine printed a picture of a plus-size model. The 20-year old model–who looks refreshingly natural and beautiful–is a size 12-14 and this is her second appearance in Glamour.

Upon seeing the photo, readers went crazy. Finally! they said. Someone like us! Blogs and media everywhere were agog, and some were calling it “the picture you can’t stop talking about.” Here was what the editor-in-chief of Glamour had to say about the response:

I’d loved this photo at first sight myself–we’d commissioned it for a story on feeling comfortable in your skin, and wanted a model who looked like she was. But even so, the letters blew me away: “the most amazing photograph I’ve ever seen in any women’s magazine,” wrote one reader in Pavo, Georgia. From another in Somerset, Massachusetts: “This beautiful woman has a real stomach and did I even see a few stretch marks? This is how my belly looks after giving birth to my two amazing kids! This photo made me want to shout from the rooftops.”

She goes on about the other letters and emails received which say how thrilled women were to see this photo.

While it’s nice of Glamour to throw “real” women a bone, let’s get a sense of perspective here. This photo wasn’t on the cover. It was on page 194. Yeah, that’s 1-9-4. And, it wasn’t even a full-page photo. It was three inches by three inches. So, the image was fairly small and buried somewhere in the magazine. Why, exactly, are we all so ecstatic?

We should be outraged. Don’t give us a puny picture buried somewhere in the magazine. Put average-sized women on the covers. Use “normal” women to model clothes and makeup and hairstyles. The average size for American women is now 12-14, so why can’t the fashion and advertising industries get the hint? Like Liz Lemon on 30 Rock said, “It’s like those Dove commercials never even happened.”

Women should boycott fashion magazines until they get the big picture. Think it’s harmless? The fashion and advertising industries can adversely affect young girls in through negative body image and eating disorders.

So, show the publishing and fashion industries what you really think by NOT buying magazines that promote a gaunt, thin body image. Maybe, when they can’t sell magazines or dresses, they’ll come around. Maybe.

Science can sometimes make a landmark discovery. A cure for polio. Nuclear fission. The genome. Other times, however, you get the feeling that research dollars have been wasted. Such seems the case with a recent study concerning one-night stands. Based on the findings, men aren’t that choosy about who they have casual sex with. Really? Wow. That is shocking…to NO ONE.

Women, we learn, are more discerning where their casual sex partners are concerned. A more attractive man stands a better chance of getting laid than an ugly one. Blown away yet? Yeah, me neither.

The authors conclude: “While men are not entirely insensitive to their requestor’s attractiveness, women have higher standards and are more likely to engage in casual sex with an exceptionally attractive man than with a less attractive man.”

Of course, the participants were not tested in the field while playing the field. They were only asked on paper to imagine what would happen if approached with an offer of casual sex. Who knows what would happen in real life?

The interesting part about this study was how men from different nationalities answered the questions. The Italian men were the most eager to jump into the sack with anyone. The Americans followed next, and the German men were the least likely to have sex with the requester.

I always knew I liked Italian men.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: sinabeet

We use water every day without thinking about it. In fact, we can’t live without it. As you’ve probably heard at some point, we can survive for a few weeks without food but only a few days without water. Although water may seem abundant to people in developed countries, globally speaking, potable water is an extremely limited resource.

In fact, lack of access to clean water claims 4 million lives a year–roughly the population of Los Angeles.

So while more fortunate folks don’t have to think about water consumption, just a few quick facts may provide the incentive we all need to think about water as a resource, and to use it accordingly.

• Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns.
• A five-minute shower in an American household will use more water than a person living in a developing world will use in a whole day.
• It takes over 2,900 gallons of water to produce a pound of coffee.
• On average, women in Africa and Asia have to walk 3.7 miles to collect water.

It’s unrealistic to think that few alarming factoids will immediately impact our daily water consumption.

Or, is it?

If every person in the United States chose just one way to save 1 gallon of water each day, we would conserve 307,183,727 gallons per day.

Pretty impressive, don’t you think?

To see water footprints check out this chart:
http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/trans0309walkthisway.html

To educate yourself about the global water crisis:
http://water.org/

To find ways that might work for you to reduce your water consumption:
http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/index.php

Photo courtesy of Flickr: darkpatator

Dear loyal readers:

Daily Dose of Common Sense is on vacation. We will return late next week.

Today’s guest post is from long-time commuter Lance Gerhart.

I have been riding the commuter rail for over ten years and have witnessed some great ways of annoying fellow riders and conductors. Here is a guide to become “that person” that the rest of us talk about. To be a complete tool on the rails, follow these ten simple suggestions:

1. Pretend you have no concept of what a train does
Be sure to jump the gap between the platform and the train like it’s a ten foot wide crevasse. And, take your time preparing for the leap. Make sure there are at least 8 people waiting for you to get on the train.

2. Once on the train, pretend you are lost
Really think about whether you want to go left or go right, because apparently it makes all the difference in the world.

3. Duck and stare
Always stop before walking down the steps and peer to see if a seat is calling your name. Make sure to give the people behind you enough time to get a good look at your ass. Then, turn around like you want to go elsewhere, but change your mind at the last second. Proceed to where you were staring in the first place.

4. Make yourself look as big as possible
Find a seat with lots of space and sit right in the middle. Spread your legs and maybe even put your bag next to you–some people might think the bag is a small dog (or even a midget) and will not attempt to sit with you.

5. Feign narcolepsy
Be sure to immediately fall asleep upon seating. Open your mouth just a bit to mimic REM sleep. Furrow your brows. This gives the impression that you are having a really bad dream and that if someone disturbs you, they will be bitten.

6. Be surprised when you have to pay
When the conductor comes calling, do the same thing you do when your credit card bill arrives in the mail–ignore it. Claim you didn’t realize that you have to pay. And when you attempt to get your money be sure to try all pockets. Don’t let the conductor hear any change rattling in your pocket or they will know you have money. You might also want to say that you ‘had’ your ticket but you lost it. Conductors never hear that and believe it every time.

7. Pass the time with a phone call–or six
Nothing passes the time like a phone call to your buddy. Make sure you recount how wasted you were the night before and how you scored with that chick at the bar. Glance a few times at fellow passengers to see if they had a similar experience because then you can talk about it between phone calls.

8. Make sure you have everything
Spend the first 20 minutes of your ride rifling through your bag, wallet, purse, backpack, suitcase, McDonald’s bag, fanny pack, or any other carry-on just to make sure that something didn’t fall out when you were deciding whether to go left or right. See that guy sitting behind you? He might have the gum you can’t find.

9. Make a TFF (Train Friend Forever)
Take advantage of the captive audience and find someone else just like you. Get to know that person (intimately, if possible). Talk about personal ailments (preferably communicable diseases) and how you treat them. Good advice is waiting.

10. Be prepared for exiting
Make sure you ask how many stops until your destination. Do this after every stop. Then get up three stops before yours and wait in the aisle. Be sure to get a good spot in line because the train will leave and you will never have the opportunity to get off. When the doors open, run like hell and don’t look back.

Lance Gerhart lives in Boston and has issues with stupid people. In his spare time, he enjoys laughing at the downtrodden and waiting for the day where corporate America believes that working in the nude is acceptable (and not just on Fridays).

Photo courtesy of Flickr: Diego_3336