Brain Contour

How many times have you gotten a mail from Capital One this month? More than once, for sure. Capital One wants to waste paper, which is why the credit card issuer can afford to send offers in paper to your mailbox many times a month.

Capital One offers Visa and MasterCard, with platinum and gold cards. With more than 44 million cardholders in the US, Canada, and the UK, why send mail spams? If they have these many customers, why not let the word of mouth do the promoting or recruiting? Satisfied customers will always be happy to share their experiences.

I just passed by the new building of the Dacotah Bank in Brookings, SD. A big electronic board was placed in front that says “Dacotah Bank is now open.”

I thought the construction of the building will never be finished. In all those times that I drove along 6th St., it seemed the bank construction has been taking its time. I waited for it to finish because I am planning to open a new account with them. If you want to know its banking hours, I posted the schedule below:

Who do you think is the hero of the entire world? It is me. Video below proves it is me. Myself. I.

Some people I know have been spreading email that is intended for the Philippine Congress. It is about the campaign to oppose the passage of the Philippine Reproductive Health Bill (HB5043). I read through the seven points cited in the document and then went through the sections and paragraphs of the bill that these “concerned citizens” think are detrimental to the Filipino people.

The email spam says:

We strongly oppose the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill (HB5043) for the following reasons:

1. AS EMPLOYERS, we do not want to be compelled to provide free reproductive health care services, supplies, devices and surgical procedures (including vasectomy and ligation) to our employees, and be subjected to both imprisonment and/or fines, for every time that we fail to comply. (Section 17 states that employers shall provide free delivery of reproductive health care services, supplies and devices to all workers more particularly women workers. – Definition of Reproductive Health and Rights Section 4, paragraph g, Section 21, Paragraph c and Section 22 on Penalties).

These big companies are greedy, with special mention going to both H&M and WalMart. Have you heard about the two throwing unsold clothing / clothes to waste? Can you imagine how many people, suffering in this cold winter months, could have benefited with the clothes had H&M and WalMart donated the unsold merchandise to Goodwill or other charities?

New York Times reports the discovery of bags full of unused clothes in bins, slashed with razors to ensure that no one would ever wear or sell it. H&M follows a destroy-and-discard policy. OMG! These predatory companies do not have a sense of civic virtue or civil responsibilities.

If only. Oh if only. If only the criterion in the selection of the World’s Friendliest Countries by Forbes is the “ability to make friends,” the Philippines would have made it to number 1. In December 2009, Forbes released its annual listing of the “World’s Friendliest Countries” and the Philippines, known to have the friendliest of smiles, missed the top 10. What happened? Where were we short of? Thailand and Malaysia placed comfortably in the top 4 and 5 spots, respectively.

According to the research company FreshMinds, there were 23 factors used to rate each country, with more than 3,100 expatriates surveyed between February and April 2009. Each factor was weighted to arrive at a score. Scores were integrated and the final eight measures were selected. The measures were: organizing school for my children, organizing my finances, organizing my health care, finding somewhere to live, making friends, making local friends, setting up utilities, and joining local community groups. Based on these criteria, the top 10 World’s Friendliest Countries were revealed:

Atheist Ireland publishes 25 blasphemous quotes after the new Irish law on Blasphemy took effect on New Years day 2010. The group, Atheist Ireland, wants the law repealed:

This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage, and because Islamic States led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.

We believe in the golden rule: that we have a right to be treated justly, and that we have a responsibility to treat other people justly. Blasphemy laws are unjust: they silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilised society, people have a right to to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous.