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POPSThe Waste Land - San Francisco's roving recyclers
More: One man, tall and strong with sharp eyes and long dreadlocks…Mute, he pulls a scrap of paper out of his cart and starts writing… “What school?” Berkeley, I say, impressed and somewhat embarrassed that he can tell so quickly my status. “Why here?” he jots. I try to explain. “You’re not too smart,” he concludes, pointing at my thin sweater and shivering hands… Then he offers me the red down coat he is wearing and goes back to work. As I walk around the cardboard boxes that contain the recyclables…I see bits of his scribbled conversations with others. “Temper is going Everyone’s under $ pressure,” reads one…“Me, I don’t sweat the cash too much,” reads another. I return to ask for the paper on which we’d just had our conversation. He looks at me skeptically. “You’re a bad journalist,” he writes. “No tape recorder.” Then he hands over the paper and smiles. I asked for his name, but he holds his forefinger to his sealed lips, then turns and goes back to
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POPSMake Money Drinking Beer Getting paid to drink beer is the wildest of fantasies any beer lover can ever conjure. But you can do it. Find out how
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POPSNHL Drives Buzz with Tweetups
This is a pretty cool casy study on how the National Hockey League (who haven't always been the best marketers) stimulated buzz and interest around the playoffs last year by holding tweet-ups in NHL cities. They did this in both playoff and non-playoff cities - so it was really targeted toward the hard-core fan who just enjoys the sport. When I was with Flying Dog Brewery, we had good success creating tweetups to build stronger awareness and relationships with our consumers. But the cool thing is that loyal consumer who would come to the event would almost always bring someone who was less familiar with the brand, so we got to talk to a partially new audience. The great thing about tweetups is that you can really build the event around any theme because the objective is to come and meet like-minded people. Whether it's the love of hockey, beer or charity event if you get the word out to the right people and throw out an interesting offer for their attendance, people will come
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POPS2012 Is Already Here "It started off same as always; coupla fossils saying how our Banjo Patterson was a better poet than Walt Whitman, how Con the Fruiterer is funnier than Seinfeld, only they're Aussies so no one knows about 'em," recalled witness Kevin Porter. "Then this bloke Martin pipes up and says Australia's main problem is that it's stuck in Australia, and everybody says 'Too right!'" "Well, it made sense at the time," Porter added. By 2 a.m., powered by national pride and alcohol, the 3-million-square-mile land mass was barging eastward through the Coral Sea and crossing into the central Pacific, leaving a trail of beer cans and Chinese take-away in its wake. When dawn broke over the Northern Hemisphere, the continent suddenly found itself, not only upside down, but smack in the middle of the Atlantic, and according to most of its 19 million inhabitants, that's the way it's going to stay.
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POPSObama Has Won The 100 Metres at The 2012 London Olympics
Thus, with President Wilson alone, the Nobel Peace Prize death toll is over 50 million and counting. Occasionally the peace prize has gone to actual peace negotiators but usually, per Teddy Roosevelt, when there was nothing left to negotiate. Carlos Saavedra Lamas got his in 1936 for mediating between Bolivia and Paraguay in the Chaco War (1932-35). Both nations were exhausted, 100,000 soldiers were dead, and the Chaco was--as it had been and remains--a vast, useless weed patch. Likewise, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan (1976) and John Hume and David Trimble (1998)--the four of them were standing around when, after 500 years, the fool residents of my ancestral homeland ran out of ammo and beer. Of course, if you go around giving prizes left and right (mostly left) for more than a century, you're bound to give some to worthy people once in a while. With the Nobel committee this usually involves the Red Cross (1901, 1917, 1944, 1963). But the Red Cross doesn't bring peace . . .
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POPSWish You Were Beer Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, it is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver. I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. Remember: "I" before "E," except in Budweiser. I drink only to make my friends seem interesting. Everybody should believe in something; I believe I'll have another drink. Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdNnw99-Ic
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POPSPolanski, rape, and the myth of "Not Like Us" More: Rapists don’t tip the homeless guy, because they have some spare change from Starbucks. Rapists don’t survive the Holocaust. Rapists don’t sit in the cubicle across from us at work, and send us funny xkcd cartoons. Rapists don’t have uneventful, long-term relationships with their college girlfriends. Rapists don’t show up on set every day, directing a critically-acclaimed movie. Rapists don’t get married, nervous in a tux at the end of the aisle. Rapists don’t spend their weekends browsing at the farmer’s market, and then stop for brunch and do the NYT crossword. Rapists don’t co-write this screenplay with us. Rapists don’t hang out at the pub with their friends, watching football and drinking just half a pint of beer, because they’re driving.… We tell these myths to ourselves and each other often, but of course, they are lies. A rapist is nothing but a man who doesn’t listen when you say stop.
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POPSPolls show atheists on the rise in America The American Religious Identification Survey recently found the number of people who claimed “no religion” had nearly doubled nationally over the last 18 years, to 15 percent. They were the only demographic that increased in all 50 states. Some attribute the surge to outrage over former president George W. Bush and his courting of the religious right. Others mention a slew of best-selling books about atheism that have recently fueled debate. But there’s no doubt the Internet is playing a role too. It offers atheist dating services, and helps nonbelievers meet up — people who might otherwise remain “loners.” “I’m happy to attend any religious observances where the food is good,” said one non-believer. For others, atheism is a cause. Along with freethinking and agnostic groups, they are beginning to lobby Congress on everything from stem cell research to civil rights.
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POPSElitists' Rules for The Working Class Interesting photo, no matter which way you break on that. Touching interaction between Crowley and Gates (who finally climbs down a little in his latest take* on this whole business, acknowledging he had something to learn about the cops. I’d add he still needs to acknowledge new lessons about race relations. * 'An Accident of Time and Place' "...I thank God that I live in a country in which police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day, and, more than ever, I’ve come to understand and appreciate their daily sacrifices on our behalf." The Root By: Henry Louis Gates Jr. http://www.theroot.com/views/accident-time-and-place Obama looks like he’s ready to get these two and the awkward situation they represent out of his house. Either that or it shows us what we already knew. Crowley is a gentleman. Obama, as amply demonstrated by assorted bizarre international incidents, is not.
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POPSRacist Mobs at it in Australia (Again) There were also reports that the group attacked a taxi driven by an Indian Sikh and an Asian shopkeeper. In scenes reminiscent of the Cronulla riots, when 5,000 white Australians congregated in the Sydney beachfront suburb and attacked Lebanese immigrants, groups of men jumped on cars that were stopped at traffic lights and chanted racist slogans to the terrified passengers.
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