- Fair or not, French people have long maintained a
reputation for being rude a-holes. Those who have visited France know this is
not true across the board or even for the majority of Frenchmen, but certain
levels of rudeness have long been
accepted by visitors as part of the experience of enjoying a city like Paris. However,
it appears the French may have finally had enough of their own rudeness,
according to recent polls and publicity campaigns. Guided by the condescension
of Napoleon, who called the English a "nation of shopkeepers,” France has
turned being rude into an art form.
However, bad manners and aggressive behavior were the most common
responses in a survey last year on social trends that were causing stress in
the country. A total of 60 percent cited rudeness as their number one source of
stress in France, higher than political problems or the European debt crisis.
The country’s public transport authority is at the forefront of this battle
with a summer-long publicity campaign against rudeness. Some eye-catching billboards
depicting Frenchmen with animal heads have popped up at metro stations,
targeting passengers who are rude to staff and push and shove. "If you
shove five people getting onboard," the posters say, "it won't make
us set off faster. One bonjour doesn't cost a penny, and it changes your
day." Officials say there are trying to affect change by using a little
levity. "We used humor to not
be moralistic," says Isabelle Ockrent, RATP communications director.
"But we've been alerted by our staff that there is a real problem."
The RATP also held "rudeness forums" over three days in late June in
20 metro stations, holding discussions on correct etiquette with passengers.
Passengers attributed rudeness like pushing and shoving to lack of time,
unhappiness and the overall incivility of the digital age, when people are
engrossed in their iPod, iPad or smartphone. Feedback on the campaign has been
mostly positive and in the world's most visited country, that is a slice of
good news………
- And the selling out is complete for what was once the
rising punk rock outfit known as Green Day. Fifteen years or so ago, Billie Joe
Armstrong and crew had an edge to them and were something of a ragged, roguh
punk band that actually had some attitude to them. Over the past decade or so,
no band has become as heavily commercialized and mainstream as the California
natives and they’ve gone from punk rock outsiders to a mainstream rock band
that is a staple on the awards show circuit. Armstrong will drive the final
nail in that coffin as he joins NBC’s reality karaoke series “The Voice
(Karaoke)” this fall. He joins complete musical hack Rob Thomas of Matchbox
Twenty will
mentor acts with judge Cee Lo Green, Mary J. Blige, who is helping Adam
Levine's team, and Michael Buble, who will assist Blake Shelton. Armstrong will
work with Christina Aguilera and compounded the shame of accepting the gig by
admitting he is a fan of the competition, in which judges choose acts to work
with based on their vocal talents alone during “blind” auditions. His addition
was confirmed on the show’s official Twitter feed, which contained the message:
"Welcome Billie Joe to Team Xtina! We are ready to rock out in Season
3." No, no you’re not, “Voice (Karaoke).” Rocking out is something you
have never done and will never do. “It's not molding artists, it's just giving
them a little bit of guidance and direction without giving them a complete
makeover," Armstrong explained. He will begin flushing what remains of his
musical credibility down the toilet when the new season of “The Voice
(Karaoke)”
begins on Sept. 10………..
- Google may want to take over the world, but that
doesn’t mean it can't exercise some responsibility, decency and integrity in
the pursuit. In case the meaning of those words are lost on the search giant,
doing more than acknowledging one has retained Internet user data collected
surreptitiously through wireless networks as part of its street mapping service
after it had been ordered to destroy it is neither decent nor rife with
integrity. The Information Commissioner's Office, which oversees data privacy
in the U.K., reported the revelation Friday and said it now intends to examine
the data, which includes email correspondence, "as soon as
practicable." The ICO said in a statement that "the fact that some of
this information still exists appears to breach the undertaking to the ICO
signed by Google in November 2010." Hmm, you think? Google Global Privacy
Counsel Peter Fleischer said in a letter to the ICO that the search titan "has
recently confirmed that it still has in its possession a small portion of
payload data collected by our Street View vehicles in the U.K." A small
portion, you say? Take that to mean a crap load of data from the U.K. "and
other countries," although Fleischer did not specify which countries. He
also failed to explain why the data was not destroyed, saying only, "Google
apologizes for this error." Google’s mapping service uses cars mounted
with detection equipment and cameras to help keep its maps service up to date
with location information and photos. In 2010, it stunned the world by
admitting it had inadvertently collected user data through equipment on those
cars that scanned wireless networks, including email messages. At the time, the
company blamed a single engineer for writing computer code that was later
mistakenly uploaded into the company's scanning equipment. The U.K. is joined
in its outrage by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which fined
Google $25,000 in April for its "noncompliance" with the regulator's
requests for related information. "For many months, Google deliberately
impeded and delayed the Bureau's investigation by failing to respond to
requests for material information," the FCC said. The sooner the
information is (finally) deleted, the better……….
- Making church fun for teenagers is no easy task. Having
said that, staging a mock kidnapping
of your youth group to serve as a lesson in religious persecution might not be
a wise choice. The Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Middletown and youth pastor Andrew
David Jordan of Elizabethtown, Pa. should have thought of that before they staged
the event in March. Because they didn’t, the southeastern Pennsylvania church
and its youth pastor are facing charges of false imprisonment and simple
assault, said Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico. In the fake
abduction, mock kidnappers covered the teenagers' heads, put them in a van and
interrogated them. Oh, and neither the students nor their parents were told
beforehand what was happening or that it wasn’t real. Oddly enough, the mother
of a 14-year-old girl filed a complaint with police. "This is a sad case
for all those involved," Marsico said, nothing that even though the
church's and Jordan's intentions were not necessarily harmful, "they in
essence terrorized several children." "We need to protect children,
no matter where the harm occurs," Marsico said. A grand jury recommended
the charges and now the case will proceed. One of the most outlandish details
of the fake kidnapping was the use of a semi-automatic rifle that was displayed
in the exercise. Glad Tidings pastor John Lanza said shortly after the event
that the church was "so saddened" that youth were traumatized during
the event, but pointed out that several students from the church sent emails of
support. He explained that the goal of the exercise was to prepare the youth
for what they might encounter as missionaries in foreign countries and said the
mock kidnappers included an off-duty police officer and a retired Army captain.
"It was a youth event, to illustrate what others have encountered on a
regular basis," he said. In the future, maybe avoid scheduling events
involving criminal activity…………
- Another year, another work stoppage for the NFL? Last
summer, right around this time, it was the league and its players on opposing
sides of a labor battle that led to a work stoppage that wiped out a large
chunk of the offseason and threatened the start of the regular season before a
new collective bargaining agreement savaged the year. This summer, the league
and its officials are at odds. On Friday, the NFL and the officials met in
Washington for their first face-to-face negotiations since the lockout began on
June 3. While the casual fan might wonder how much of an impact replacement
officials would have on the level of play in games, those who know the game
well are genuinely concerned about the effect. Division I college football
would seem to be the optimal source for fill-ins, but D-I conferences are
unwilling to allow their officials to moonlight in the NFL and potentially work
a college game Saturday and an NFL game Sunday. “They are officials with high
school experience only,” former NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira
recently said. “There are officials who were dropped from their college
conferences. Three officials from the Pac-12 Conference that were not rehired
this season for performance reasons are now going to work [NFL] games.”
Periera, who now writes about the league and serves as a TV commentator on
officiating issues in the NFL, is on the record as saying that using
replacement officials will compromise the integrity of the game.
Unfortunately, he’s correct and if the two sides cannot come together and work
out their issues, a rocky season of bad calls is ahead…………
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