No Rest in Peace Here!

My relatives have strict instructions about what to do with my body when I no longer need it: send it to the crematorium and scatter my resultant ashes somewhere in the beautiful ancient hills of my beloved Northern Territory.

Nobody will be able to dig up my coffin in 2,000 years and probe whatever is left of me. 

While we often make the comment "Rest in Peace" about our dead, we aren't happy to let our ancestors' bodies rest in peace. No, we pull them out of their comfortable coffins and meddle with them.

It is good that we learn about ancient civilisations and the DNA that led to us and those who have rested in peace for so long, probably won't care that we meddle with them for purely scientific and archeological reasons. They're well past that!

But, should we expect that we have the right to do so?

If these deceased thought that 2,000 years later someone would pull them out of their caskets and slice pieces of their skin and hair off for DNA examination, would they have agreed? Or did they, like some of our religious, believe that their bodies would ascend into some utopian realm to live happily ever after?

We will never know, but we assume ownership because the original owners of the gravesites are no longer with us. And we don't care whether these ancestors rest in peace or otherwise.

You can read more here.

Robin

Oris - A Different Type Watch Company

Oris may not be as well known a brand as Amazon or Ebay for most people, but within the watch lovers' communities, it's huge!

Oris has been with us since 1904 and is one of the most prestigious watch companies on the planet. 

Innovation and perfection in design and engineering have been central to Oris since its first days.

Oris is responsible for designing an ingenious depth indicator for its diving watches and the elegant pilots' watch at left, one of many, comes with an altimeter that can be purchased in either Imperial or Metric versions.

So what's different about Oris?

Oris is passionate about the environment and people funding projects like the Lake Baikal Foundation and manufacturing limited release watches honouring people such as Carl Brashear.

The company is even involved in dophin and whale conservation. 

And there is much more. You can read about other Oris supported projects here and the 50 people who were given watches by Oris - their "Heroes of the Hour".

I've been a fan of watches for decades - most of my life in fact, and I've never heard of such generosity by a watch company. Oris gives back!

If you'd like to support any of Oris's philanthropy or conservation programs, I recommend you visit their site and help out. You may even like to spoil yourself with one of the world's best watches.

Robin

PS: I do not receive a benefit should you wish to contribute to Oris programs or purchase one of their watches.

Acknowledgement: Photo by Oris

When the prices change daily ...

There I was, cursing the rain for yet another day when I'd be unable to head out for a walk. It's been too long - drizzling, cold days, and cutting winds.

I switched on the TV and there it was, the solution to my problem of not being able to go out for a walk. The iWalkPro!

The advert, showing a couple of lovely shapely young ladies with perfect bodies who don't need a treadmill, bouncing away showing us how good it is. Simply mesmerizing.

All the reviews describing how users sleep better, have lost inches or kilograms, simply by using the iWalkPro.

If you call an 1800 number and order it, you can get it delivered for $14.95. And they'll throw in a $500 air fryer to boot.

I need a treadmill, not an effing air fryer.

But nowhere, even in the fine print could I see the total price. Like, $14.95 is loose change, but when a price is omitted, it worries me that it's probably either inordinately high, or ridiculous for the goods you're buying.

Down the bottom of the page was the "Ask us a question" offer. I asked the question and it was obviously too difficult as this is the answer I received. 

The answer did come in a remarkably short time, and on a Sunday too.

Unfortunately, the answer was a non-answer.

Which other company changes their prices daily? 

Maybe I need to ring up every day for a week and see whether today's price is better than yesterday's.

I figure that with a treadmill, I can do two half-hour stints to total my one-hour walking target daily instead of doing it in one session.

All I need to do is call to see if I can afford a treadmill.

Robin

Sales Blurbs that Never Seem to End

In the 90s I had an online business where, among other things, I published ebooks. At that time ebooks were king of the internet. Everyone was producing ebooks about something. Many were free written by so-called internet gurus.

I read prolifically. Some ebooks I purchased, others I downloaded to learn about marketing methods, how to use AdSense, keyword maximisation and plenty more. I still have most of them tucked away in a folder somewhere.

Many of the internet marketing gurus like Cory Rudl, who had made his wealth selling one ebook about how to buy a used motor vehicle, opined that the long marketing message was superior to the short marketing message.

The long sales message was supposed to convince readers to buy or subscribe to whatever was being sold. I disagreed. Why?

Every time I found a long sales blurb, I'd read a bit at the beginning, scan most of it and head straight to the end. At the end of the day, what one wants to know is what is being sold and how much it costs.

Life is too short to read through a lengthy discussion about how much you need someone's product, how it will change your life, and why you should buy it immediately, if not sooner.

With written sales text, you could head to the end and return to the body text if that's what you wanted. The current crop of video presentations prevents that.

You're trapped.

You see an advert about something you're interested in, say something like, "10 Reasons You Can't Lose Weight."

So, you click the link only to find a video and some self-designated "expert" who will tell you the 10 reasons. But what happens is you have to go through a lengthy diatribe during which the expert keeps telling you they are going to reveal the 10 reasons, but it never happens.

The video goes on and on and eventually, bored shitless, you escape. You never find out anything about the 10 reasons.

If you do stay and watch the whole half-hour blurb, ultimately, there will be an offer to buy the latest weight loss tablet at a discounted price for the next few hours. Or there will be a book or ebook for sale.

It's really annoying and I wonder just how successful a marketing strategy it is.

What do you think?

Robin