100 Year Old Fashion More Popular Today Than Ever: Breton T-shirt.

It's always interesting how today's clothing designers, no matter how innovative they may strive to be, always revert back to the tried and true classic styles. Sure, it's fun to wear the latest thing that will only look dated, or worse, stupid, three years from now. But sticking with the classic styles that never go out of style will serve you far better financially and stylistically. Pictured is the Breton T-shirt, as relevant today as it was seen here in the port of Breton back in 1908. This photo is a true-color Lumeriere Autochrome photo plate, the first color photo process available to the general public, brought to market in 1907.

The Awful Myth Of The "Eyewitness"

Are You A Good Eyewitness?

Whether researching hundreds of 100-year-old news articles for my books in which people are summarily convicted of crimes based on the positive identification of a suspect by a single eye witness, or learning of the numerous people in recent times sent to prison based on faulty eye-witness accounts, the dependability of the so-called “eye witness” must be called into question.

It is now widely known that a condition called face blindness exists in which 2% of the population cannot, for example, recognize their own child in a group of assorted children. There is an equal percentage of super-recognizers who have the uncanny ability to recognize people, as an example, seen briefly only one time many decades previous. The rest of us inhabit the spectrum somewhere in between these two extremes.

Eyewitness misidentification is the greatest contributing factor to wrongful convictions proven by DNA testing, playing a role in more than 70% of convictions. The horrifying fact that "eyewitness testimony" is so freely admitted in criminal court cases with no ability-testing required of the eyewitness, whether it be a police officer or civilian, is not only criminal, but if compelled in the reexamination of such cases might well result in hundreds of criminal cases being overturned.

There is a fascinating test online you can take to see wherein the spectrum your facial recognition abilities lie:

http://www.bbk.ac.uk/psychology/psychologyexperiments/experiments/facememorytest/startup.php

Netflix Can't Understand Why You Won't Pay More Money For Less Service

Two years ago a friend who worked at a Netflix DVD distribution center confirmed that my post office was not to blame. On a first name basis with all my local small town USPS personnel, who are also Netflix subscribers, they swore the discs I was mailing back to Netflix were indeed sent out and received at the NDC the following day. Yet email confirmations from Netflix claimed the discs were received a full day or more after they actually were. My NDC friend told me that it was, at that time, new policy that a random 20% or more of all incoming discs not be logged in for an additional 24 hours.

This gave Netflix much higher profits, as the number of discs being mailed out monthly would be decreased by the intentional delays. Additionally, Netflix changed its policy from a 6-day a week model to a 5-day a week model without announcing it, meaning no discs from that point on would be logged in/mailed out on Saturdays, further cutting down on the monthly number of DVDs members could receive. Any way you cut it, that’s called a price increase: less DVDs for the same amount of money. Like when Haagens Dazs reduced the size of its 16 oz. pint to 14 oz., which according to them, that wasn’t a price increase, and how dare we suggest such a thing. Just one more shameless way for billionaires to rake in even more cash. 

Recently, when Netflix’ stock tanked, arrogant CEO Reed Hastings cluelessly wondered how a $2 increase in its streaming fee could possibly be any obstacle at all to its paying customers, because, you know, it’s just two bucks. Why shouldn’t people keep paying more and more money for less and less service despite their wages being stagnant, a reality caused by, you guessed it, these same billionaires.

Must-Watch Shows Only On YouTube:

Bondi Rescue is a true reality show set at Sydney's famed Bondi beach in which Lifeguards save people in all kinds of peril:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXZCA9ZSUZY&list=PL52D8066A377476CF

Long Lost Family is a Brit series with US and Australian offshoots about people trying to reconnect with relatives lost through adoption, divorce, abandonment, etc. The British version has the best production values:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXFj5XfdjWo&list=PLJiqATBeFgbXiQ3w2eCBGtcZze5JRSVif

Japan Tsunami 2011. For disaster movie fans, here's the real thing: fascinating and terrifying minute-by-minute documentation as horrific tsunamis arrive at various Japan cities and towns. Watch as people who did not heed the loudspeaker warnings fail to make it to high ground in time. The ones with Japanese language titles are the originals and best. The series posted by "FNN311" are superior. Subscribe to FNN311 to watch them all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psUH9cukevM&list=PLBWGgGUsd69rH1qRwSVXvnLFIqmG4H51A&index=5

Movie Stars Among Themselves. Beautiful home movies of gorgeous movie stars relaxing at Malibu Beach together in the 1960s shot by actor Roddy McDowell. Jane Fonda, Paul Newman, Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Julie Andrews, Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood and many others hang out on weekends at the beach:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXWfgWVtYJ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y52Zvc3yG2E

Missing? Sounds More Like Murder.

(photo shows age-progression)

Does any "professional" connected to this case realize how tiny, uncoordinated and unstable on her feet a 2-year old is?

 According to this item from CBSNews.com, as a 2-year old foster child, this toddler:

1-got up in the middle of the night and got the idea to leave the house.

2-went to the entry and pulled a stool over to the entry door.

3-climbed up.

4-unlocked the door WITH HER TINY HANDS.

5-turned the knob WITH HER TINY HANDS to open it.

6-she somehow accomplished opening a heavy door in on herself when she was obviously IN THE WAY.

7-somehow she worked it out so she could climb back down from the stool without inadvertently shutting the door again in the process...

8- ...or falling.

9-then she realized she had to move the stool out of the way and accomplished this.

10-not tall enough to reach the door knob while standing on the floor, she SOMEHOW pulled the door open wide enough to get through.

11- then she left, never to be seen again.

12- apparently and against all odds, a kidnapper or pedophile just happened to be driving by in the middle of the night and stopped to abduct her.

This is as PREPOSTEROUS as it is STUPID.

How heavy was the stool? Was the floor tile/hardwood, or carpet? Did they bring in a 2-year old to test this scenario and thus see how ABSURD this is? CBS presents this story as if it is both entirely logical and plausible. A 2-YEAR OLD CANNOT accomplish this. If the entry door was left unlocked during the night, WTF are people this irresponsible doing acting as foster parents in a dangerous place like Vegas? This story stinks, most of all because CBS presents it as if a dozen bells and whistles aren't shrieking in their investigative ear.

My take on it is the girl was murdered. That the Clark County police, the foster care system and CBS all think this is not worthy of meticulous investigation as a murder is absolutely criminal. At the very least the foster parents should be charged with gross child neglect.

Stop Being A Poverty Volunteer

I have over 550 transactions on eBay with 100% positive feedback. Recently in Hawaii I encountered a “higher up” in the eBay company on vacation. Our talk eventually led to my revelation as both a buyer and seller that there were many problems, most easily fixable, with the eBay customer experience. Mr. eBay asked what these were specifically. I categorized four of the problems. He became quite enthused and asked for details. I responded that my consulting fee was $350 an hour. He scoffed. “You gotta to be kidding!” exclaimed the extremely highly paid but woefully stupid eBay employee. My ideas about the flaws within the eBay business model could net eBay additional millions annually, but paying me my quote, which would amount to about $1000, was out of the question.

The reason why employees in general are so poorly paid is because so many people are willing to work for free. Others give away their valuable ideas toward improving the company's bottom line to their managers and bosses instead of bargaining for compensation beforehand. Otherwise intelligent people work for companies inventing or developing things that their company stands to make millions on, rather than negotiate something like a 50/50 deal, and all for a “secure job” (no job is secure) and a "reliable" salary not at all compensatory in relation to their education or skills.

The most extreme example is the so-called “intern” who is quite literally a slave worker required to perform demeaning duties in a professional environment surrounded by and ordered around by very well paid co-workers — for free. The idea that an “intern” would be expected to work for free by a Fortune 500 caliber company boggles the mind as to the arrogance and callousness of such an institution. The lesson is, no one will ever pay you for what you are willing to do for free. You are a destined to be a drone if you accept such conditions.

Absurdities such as “this will look good on your resume” or “this will look good in your portfolio” with the inference that working for them for free or providing your experience or creation without pay will land you an amazing opportunity or some great paying job somewhere down the line is how you are kept in the hold of the ship, chained to an oar, rowing ceaselessly.

Stop being a poverty volunteer. The concepts of “starting at the bottom” and “paying your dues” are for saps. These phrases are thrown at you by imposters and pretenders trying to keep you down,  fearful of your encroaching on their precariously-held, dubiously-acquired positions.

1906 Color Photos Of San Francisco Earthquake Aftermath

Monday April 18th 2016 marks the 110th anniversary of the great San Francisco Earthquake. These remarkable color photos were taken as the city rebuilt. It is a unique early color process unrelated to the French Autochrome process.