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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
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There's something about corporations that sell you an "Ethos" or "Values" that kinda gives you a feel good feeling. Like buying free range eggs, you'll pay a little more to know that the animal was treated properly. Or knowing that the company shares the same love for the environment that you do. Or finding out that their commitment ends with putting out recycling bins and then throwing everything out with the trash...
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marketplace-tim-hortons-starbucks-coffee-cups-recycling-1.3278648
Now, given the presence of recycling containers I think a strong case could be made that as the "Feel Good" aspect of their marketing is fraudulent and constitutes false or misleading advertising.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
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It's in that little space where doubt creeps in and you realize that reason and math can never have all the answers...
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 2002
And this is one take on the value of a human life:
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Uncomfortable, this measuring of one's worth with dollars and cents, but it's something that companies do all the time. Think Union Carbide in Bhopal, or The Ford Pinto, both of which saw companies cheerfully put a dollar value on Human Lives. We do it all the time as well, Xenophobia sees us raise the value of lives in our own country VS lives of those in other countries, sees us raise money for the rich (think Fort MacMurray, no lives lost (well, one, in a traffic accident fleeing the fire)), yet in Alberta more money was raised to support the victims of insured inconvenience and homelessness than was donated to victims of the Lac Megantic rail disaster in Quebec. Clearly Albertan property and industry is far more valuable than Quebec lives. Think of the welfare allocated to a single mother VS the amount of money it takes to incarcerate a sex offender - several times more money is "invested" - to questionable return - in the sex offender. Insurance companies assign your life a value based on your ability to pay them and the probability of them having to pay out. And I could continue. The video only lightly touches on some important questions that we, as a society, need to revisit...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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An interesting look and breakdown at the cost of Urban Sprawl in the United States. While the conclusions are both predictable and obvious it's good that someone crunched the math. I'm guessing that they've underestimated it greatly, Calgary's sprawl alone must account for several billion dollars squandered annually...
Link: http://www.citylab.com/design/2016/06/cost-of-sprawl-us-commuters/486170/
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1945
A rather intriguing way of looking at addiction and mental illness.
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