Oh man, I just woke up. This is not going to be good writing. Just FYI.

I am going to try to extend the Ashley Madison bit I was doing a month ago. I'll need some help to round out my list though, so please read on.

Avid Life owners of Ashley Madison wanted to run an ad campaign on the TTC using streetcars that read, "“Life is short. Have an affair”. Sadly the TTC said no, and I could work to insert a joke about how maybe a scintillating ad or two would wake up sleepy employees, but I won't oh maybe I just did.

Anyways, fresh from that controversy, the company would like to now, take Ashley Madison public and list it on the TSE (Toronto Stock Exchange).

I would *so* love to demonstrate my faith in infidelity, by helping Ashley Madison become blue chip stock. Then again, the company doesn't need my help, adultery is no fad, it's going to be around for a long time, as long as there's marriage right?

The part that really cracks me up is when the author discusses the TSE's reluctance to list Ashley Madison for biblical reasons:

"Even Bay Street, with its well-documented zeal for any money-making idea, is struggling with the idea of backing a company premised on breaking one of the Ten Commandments."

Here are the 10 commandments and a list of the associated publicly traded industries that could perhaps anger Yahweh. I feel like my list could be longer, and there are a few commandments that I couldn't think of industries for, so if you have any suggestions leave them in comments, thanks.

1. : 'Thou shall have no other gods before Me.'

The entertainment industry

2. : 'Thou shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness
of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'

Home movies, photography etc, Kodak, Nikon etc.. Basically any authoring tools, so I guess this section would have to include both Microsoft and Apple, and maybe Facebook, Myspace, Flickr etc.. since that's where we all post our graven images on a daily basis.

3. : 'Thou shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.'

Did I say entertainment industry already? Internet and self-publishing ventures.

4. 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'

Any business that is open Saturday or Sunday. Any business that offers customer support 24/7. Hydro-electric companies that produce the electricity we use to power our homes on the day of rest, those bastards.

5. 'Honor your father and your mother.'

To be honest I am not sure about this one. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

6. 'Thou shall not murder.'

The Military-industrial complex

7. 'Thou shall not commit adultery.'

Ashley Madison would go nicely here

8. 'Thou shall not steal.'

Currency exchanges. Buying debt. Again, someone more familiar with the language of high finance could probably throw in a few terms here.

9. 'Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.'

Traditional media, especially Fox News Network

10.' Thou shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not
covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his
female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything
that is your neighbor's.'

Again, I need help with this one, also I need to go to work, so coments once again, are welcome

goodbye and god bless, and thanks for your help.

So essentially, the blogosphere (recently a barren and lonely sphere indeed) has been buzzing like it's 2004 because clay shirky wrote a 'rant' about 'women' where he essentially...

(ahem, and when I say essentially I mean okay I skimmed because I find it irritating when people write stupid hella long blog posts that they don't bother to edit. It irritated me in 2004 and it irritates me even more now that I have managed to starve my attention span down to 144 characters in the service of finding reputable, readable journalism)

Anyways, Shirky is plus ou moin arguing that women don't put themselves forwards enough, and that's why there are more pundits like him, and fewer shrill gadflys with vaginas like me in the upper firmament of whatever, you name it, the government, NASA, the CIA, management at Walmart, elite terror cells in the middle of the Afghan dessert.

So check out this fascinating little peice of image-based sociological research: Gender, Technology, and Toys R Us.

The author, Lisa Wade, checked out gifts for the geeky boys, vs gifts for the geeky girls using the Toy's R'Us suggestion centre. She points out that in terms of defining interests Toy's R' US gives very similar options for boys and girls ie; arsty, sporty, outdoorsy, techie etc.. But given that, the gift suggestions are very different. The breakdown is essentially this:

So that’s 13 building/engineering games (like Lego and KNEX), 3 ipod accessories, 4 portable DVD players, 2 MP3 players, and a few other things.

What do girls get? Seven ipod accessories, 5 portable DVD players, 4 MP3 players, 3 laptop computers, 3 cameras, and one building/engineering game. One.

It's a little too late for me to be writing a full-blown essay on this tonight. But I was just flipping through a photo essay from the Washington Post titled: Recession in the Rust Belt and became disturbed by what seems to be a poverty aesthetic.

Update: This morning Emily West, a prof at U Mass, posted this Slate article on Levi's new "Go Forth" ad campaign and it's use of iconic Walt Whitman verse, and dramatic imagery such as; "children playing in run-down neighborhoods, an embattled business executive surrounded by an angry mob, and young people frolicking in blue jeans", to produce a feeling of "squalor and anxiety" paired with what you might call a pioneer spirit.

After setting the ominous tone, the spot goes on to portray youth in distressed jeans, carrying heroic signage. Slate's Seth Stevenson proposes that the ad "acts as a galvanizing call to generational action: Times may be tough, but we've been here before, and America's youth will not be broken." Yes, and the first action will be Googling Walt Whitman, the second, paying full price for a pair of 501s.