Ramanisblog

Year: 2012

  • How Companies Predict Your Buying.

    English: Logo of Target, US-based retail chain
    Image via Wikipedia

    Science comes to the aid of  marketing in an awesome way.

    Read on.

    “

    Pole has a master’s degree in statistics and another in economics, and has been obsessed with the intersection of data and human behavior most of his life. His parents were teachers in North Dakota, and while other kids were going to 4-H, Pole was doing algebra and writing computer programs. “The stereotype of a math nerd is true,” he told me when I spoke with him last year. “I kind of like going out and evangelizing analytics.”

    As the marketers explained to Pole – and as Pole later explained to me, back when we were still speaking and before Target told him to stop – new parents are a retailer’s holy grail. Most shoppers don’t buy everything they need at one store. Instead, they buy groceries at the grocery store and toys at the toy store, and they visit Target only when they need certain items they associate with Target – cleaning supplies, say, or new socks or a six-month supply of toilet paper. But Target sells everything from milk to stuffed animals to lawn furniture to electronics, so one of the company’s primary goals is convincing customers that the only store they need is Target. But it’s a tough message to get across, even with the most ingenious ad campaigns, because once consumers’ shopping habits are ingrained, it’s incredibly difficult to change them.

    There are, however, some brief periods in a person’s life when old routines fall apart and buying habits are suddenly in flux. One of those moments – the moment, really – is right around the birth of a child, when parents are exhausted and overwhelmed and their shopping patterns and brand loyalties are up for grabs. But as Target’s marketers explained to Pole, timing is everything. Because birth records are usually public, the moment a couple have a new baby, they are almost instantaneously barraged with offers and incentives and advertisements from all sorts of companies. Which means that the key is to reach them earlier, before any other retailers know a baby is on the way. Specifically, the marketers said they wanted to send specially designed ads to women in their second trimester, which is when most expectant mothers begin buying all sorts of new things, like prenatal vitamins and maternity clothing. “Can you give us a list?” the marketers asked.

    “We knew that if we could identify them in their second trimester, there’s a good chance we could capture them for years,” Pole told me. “As soon as we get them buying diapers from us, they’re going to start buying everything else too. If you’re rushing through the store, looking for bottles, and you pass orange juice, you’ll grab a carton. Oh, and there’s that new DVD I want. Soon, you’ll be buying cereal and paper towels from us, and keep coming back.”

    The desire to collect information on customers is not new for Target or any other large retailer, of course. For decades, Target has collected vast amounts of data on every person who regularly walks into one of its stores. Whenever possible, Target assigns each shopper a unique code – known internally as the Guest ID number – that keeps tabs on everything they buy. “If you use a credit card or a coupon, or fill out a survey, or mail in a refund, or call the customer help line, or open an e-mail we’ve zsent you or visit our Web site, we’ll record it and link it to your Guest ID,” Pole said. “We want to know everything we can.”

    Also linked to your Guest ID is demographic information like your age, whether you are married and have kids, which part of town you live in, how long it takes you to drive to the store, your estimated salary, whether you’ve moved recently, what credit cards you carry in your wallet and what Web sites you visit. Target can buy data about your ethnicity, job history, the magazines you read, if you’ve ever declared bankruptcy or got divorced, the year you bought (or lost) your house, where you went to college, what kinds of topics you talk about online, whether you prefer certain brands of coffee, paper towels, cereal or applesauce, your political leanings, reading habits, charitable giving and the number of cars you own. (In a statement, Target declined to identify what demographic information it collects or purchases.) All that information is meaningless, however, without someone to analyze and make sense of it. That’s where Andrew Pole and the dozens of other members of Target’s Guest Marketing Analytics department come in.

    http://newsworldwide.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/how-companies-learn-your-secrets/

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  • What Archaeology says on Christianity.

    Story of Christ as seen by Archaeology.

    ”

    First reference to Christ?

    Courtesy of Namrata Anand

    Does the world’s first known reference to Christ refer to him as a magician? An inscription on a bowl uncovered from the underwater ruins of Alexandria in Egypt reads “DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS,” which archaeologists translate to mean either “by Christ the magician” or “the magician by Christ.” The bowl dates to between the late second century B.C. and the early first century.

    If the word “Christ” does indeed refer to the biblical Jesus Christ, then it would be the first known written reference to Christ and might provide evidence that Christianity and paganism at times intertwined in the ancient world. The archaeologists who discovered the bowl think that a magus could have practiced fortune telling rituals with the bowl and used the name Jesus to legitimize his supernatural powers. At the time, the people of Alexandria were likely aware of stories about Jesus’ miracles, such as turning water into wine and multiplying loaves of bread.

    Turning water to wine

    Jesus’ first and perhaps best-known miracle, as recorded in the Gospel of John, was turning water into wine at a Jewish wedding in Cana that had run short of the celebratory drink. Archaeologists at a salvage dig in modern-day Cana found pieces of stone jars, including the one shown here, that date to the time of Jesus and appear to be the same type of jar mentioned in the water-to-wine story.

    A similar find at a rival dig several miles to the north of this site, however, is leading some archaeologists to yearn for further excavations before the issue is settled. One crucial question was where exactly the biblical Cana was located.

    Nailed to the cross

    Ancient literature suggests that crucifixions — central to the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection — were common in Roman times, but there is scant archaeological evidence for the practice. Some scholars argue that since there was likely little concern for people who were crucified, their remains were simply scattered. A rare exception came in 1968 when a first-century funerary box was discovered with the remains of a man who had apparently suffered the grisly form of execution.

    Analysis of the remains revealed that the feet of the crucifixion victim really were nailed to the cross — one of the foot bones, in the center of this image, has a nail driven through it from the side. The nail is bent, which is perhaps why it was left intact instead of being removed, according to archaeologists. The hand bones, however, showed no signs of being nailed to the cross, suggesting this practice often depicted in crucifixion artwork may not have always occurred.

    Wrapped in a cloth

    Image: Paraffin candles

    Antonio Calanni  /  AP

     Faith does not need proof.
    However Faith is reinforced when is confirmed by Science, though Science is not always right.

    “A long piece of cloth, or a shroud, kept under close guard at a cathedral in Turin, Italy, is believed by many to be the burial cloth that was wrapped around the crucified Jesus. Scientific interest in the shroud began in earnest when negatives from a 1898 photograph revealed the image of man who appears to have suffered a crucifixion. Since then, biblical scholars, archaeologists and the faithful have hotly debated the authenticity of the so-called Shroud of Turin.

    Vatican-approved carbon-dating tests on fibers taken from the cloth in 1988 indicated that the shroud dated to medieval times — ranging from 1260 to 1390. Scientists concluded that the claims about Jesus’ image were an elaborate hoax. Other studies have since argued that the dated fibers were from a repaired section of the cloth and that the carbon dates were therefore invalid.

    Other evidence supporting the authenticity of shroud includes pollen residues on the cloth that are unique to Israel and Turkey, indicating it must have spent time in those countries. In support of the skeptics, a second burial shroud that dates to the time of Jesus is of a completely different style than the Turin shroud.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36089069/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/archaeology-christianity/#.T0z4gYfxp4M

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  • Jesus Resurrection in Doubt.Evidence Unearthed.

    The Jewish inscription Yeshua` bar Yehosef (&q...
    Image via Wikipedia

    The evidence that Jesus lived in flesh and blood is the proof that Christians have been waiting for to counter the Sceptics’ view that Jesus was a figment of imagination.

    At the same time it will be shocking to note that Jesus did not resurrect himself as believed by the Faithful.

    It does not really matter whether he was resurrected or not.

    It is his message that is relevant.

    Hope the Church is not carried by over enthusiasm and dub this evidence as inadmissible.

    “The story of a stunning new discovery that provides the first physical evidence of Christians in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus and his apostles

    In 2010, using a specialized robotic camera, authors Tabor and Jacobovici, working with archaeologists, geologists, and forensic anthropologists, explored a previously unexcavated tomb in Jerusalem from around the time of Jesus. They made a remarkable discovery. The tomb contained several ossuaries, or bone boxes, two of which were carved with an iconic image and a Greek inscription. Taken together, the image and the inscription constitute the earliest archaeological evidence of faith in Jesus’ resurrection.

    Design on Tomb box.
    Biblical Story of Jonas and Fish etched on the bone box..

    Since the newly discovered ossuaries can be reliably dated to before 70 AD, when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, they also provide the first evidence in Jerusalem of the people who would later be called “Christians.” In fact, it is possible, maybe even likely, that whoever was buried in this tomb knew Jesus and heard him preach.

    “The newly examined tomb is only 200 feet away from the so-called Jesus Family Tomb. This controversial tomb, excavated in 1980 and recently brought to international attention, contained ossuaries inscribed with names associated with Jesus and his immediate family. Critics dismissed the synchronicity of names as mere coincidence. But the new discovery increases the likelihood that the “Jesus Family Tomb” is, indeed, the real tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. Tabor and Jacobovici discuss the evidence in support of this interpretation and describe how both tombs appear to have been part of the property of a wealthy individual, possibly Joseph of Arimathea, the man who, according to the gospels, buried Jesus.

    http://books.simonandschuster.com/Jesus-Discovery/Simcha-Jacobovici/9781451650402

    ”

    Most provocatively, they pointed to one box that was said to contain the remains of Jesus, and another containing the remains of “Judah, son of Jesus.” These claims ran counter to the mainstream Christian view that Jesus made a bodily resurrection after his crucifixion and death, and that he did not marry or have children. To explain the seeming discrepancy with the Gospels, Tabor and his colleagues suggested that early Christians did not necessarily believe in a bodily resurrection, but rather a spiritual resurrection in which Jesus left behind the “old clothes” of the flesh.

    The first book (“The Jesus Family Tomb“) and TV documentary (“The Lost Tomb of Jesus”) set off a wave of protests, with skeptics saying that Tabor and Jacobovici were sensationalizing an unprovable assertion. Despite the criticism, the team continued their work, focusing on the other tomb. This tomb was only briefly examined in 1981 before protests by Orthodox Jews, concerned about the disturbance of a gravesite, forced an end to the archaeological study. The tomb was sealed back up, and a condominium was built over it. Tabor and his colleagues refer to this tomb as the “Patio Tomb,” because a patio sits almost directly above the tomb.

    http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/28/10521007-new-find-revives-jesus-tomb-flap

     “Jesus had “brothers and sisters”, as reported in Mark[2] 6:3[3] and Matthew 13:55-56.[4] Thecanonical Gospels name four brothers, James, Joseph (Joses), Judas and Simon, but only James is known to history, though some associate Simeon of Jerusalem with Simon the brother of Jesus. After Jesus’ death, James, “the Lord’s brother”,[5] was the head of the congregation inJerusalem[2] and Jesus’ relatives may have held positions of authority in the surrounding area.[6]The literal conclusion from what is written in the New Testament is that Jesus’ siblings were children of Mary and Joseph, as accepted by some members of the early Christian church, later called the Antidicomarianites; however, when Helvidius proposed this idea in the 4th century, Jerome the Just maintained that Mary remained always a virgin, and held that those who were called the brothers and sisters of Jesus were actually children of Clopas, a brother-in-law of Mary.[7][8] The terms “brothers” and “sisters” as used in this context are open to different interpretations,[9] and since have been argued to refer to children of Joseph by a previous marriage, Mary’s sister’s children, or Joseph’s sister’s children.[7] Critical scholars say that the doctrine of perpetual virginity has long obscured the recognition that Jesus had siblings.[10]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desposyni

  • Osama Bin Laden’s Hide out in Pakistan Demolished.Video.

    Pakistan has demolished the house where Osama Bin Laden was hiding and killed by the US forces .

    This is probably due to US pressure citing that the place could become a shrine and an Icon for the Jihadis.( just as Hitler‘s hide out in black Forest and the Fuhrers Bunker in Berlin was demolished.)

    Another report emanating from Pakistan states that Pakistan is to allow the US Drone strikes in Pakistan, despite Pakistan’s public noises over the use of US Drones inside Pakistan.

    Pakistan is run by every one except by the Pakistanis.

    ”

    Pakistani authorities have reduced the house where Osama bin Laden lived for years before he was killed by U.S. commandos to rubble, destroying a concrete symbol of the country’s association with one of the world’s most reviled men.

    Workers completed the demolition job in the garrison town of Abbottabad in northwest Pakistan on Monday.(See more on U.S. relations with Pakistan.)

    The al-Qaida leader moved into the three-story house in 2005. Acting on intelligence gathered by the CIA, a team of U.S. commandos flew in by helicopter from Afghanistan and killed bin Laden on May 2 before dumping his body at sea hours later.

    The operation left Pakistan’s army in the awkward position of explaining why it had not detected the U.S. raid, and how bin Laden was able to live in the town without its knowledge. U.S. officials have said they have found no evidence that senior Pakistani officials were in the know about bin Laden’s whereabouts.

    Mechanized backhoe vehicles and construction workers began pulling down the house on Saturday night, working under floodlights.

    http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2107676,00.html#ixzz1ng1wAjEa

  • ‘Stratfor’ Targets,Controls individuals.Just what is it?

    Stratfor Logo.
    Stratfor.

    Stratfor is US( Austin,Texas) based organisation specialising in the gathering of intelligence on behalf of its Clients,Corporates and Governments.

    The Intelligence thus gathered is used by these to evaluate, decide and draw their strategies.

    The organisation is reported to be run by Ex CIA personnel.

    I do not know how far this is true.

    The organisation has a website that would forward you its reports.

    You have to sign in for the reports at their portal.

    Some information provided there are shocking.

    In the meanwhile Julian Assange of Wikileaks has accused Stratfor of compromising individual Freedom and violating Privacy.

    The same job is being done on a grand scale by WikiLeaks, targeting Governments.

    Case of Kettle calling the pot Black or the other way around?

    Both WikiLeaks and Stratfor have one thing in common, Publicity and Money.

    “February, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files – more than five million emails from the Texas-headquartered “global intelligence” company Stratfor. The emails date from between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defense Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor’s web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods, for example :

    “[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control… This is intended to start our conversation on your next phase” – CEO George Friedman to Stratfor analyst Reva Bhalla on 6 December 2011, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on the medical condition of the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez.

    The material contains privileged information about the US government’s attacks against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks and Stratfor’s own attempts to subvert WikiLeaks. There are more than 4,000 emails mentioning WikiLeaks or Julian Assange. The emails also expose the revolving door that operates in private intelligence companies in the United States. Government and diplomatic sources from around the world give Stratfor advance knowledge of global politics and events in exchange for money. The Global Intelligence Files exposes how Stratfor has recruited a global network of informants who are paid via Swiss banks accounts and pre-paid credit cards. Stratfor has a mix of covert and overt informants, which includes government employees, embassy staff and journalists around the world.

    The material shows how a private intelligence agency works, and how they target individuals for their corporate and government clients. For example, Stratfor monitored and analysed the online activities of Bhopal activists, including the “Yes Men”, for the US chemical giant Dow Chemical. The activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India. The disaster led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage.

    Stratfor has realised that its routine use of secret cash bribes to get information from insiders is risky. In August 2011, Stratfor CEO George Friedman confidentially told his employees : “We are retaining a law firm to create a policy for Stratfor on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. I don’t plan to do the perp walk and I don’t want anyone here doing it either.”

    Stratfor’s use of insiders for intelligence soon turned into a money-making scheme of questionable legality. The emails show that in 2009 then-Goldman Sachs Managing Director Shea Morenz and Stratfor CEO George Friedman hatched an idea to “utilise the intelligence” it was pulling in from its insider network to start up a captive strategic investment fund. CEO George Friedman explained in a confidential August 2011 document, marked DO NOT SHARE OR DISCUSS : “What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor’s intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments, particularly government bonds, currencies and the like”. The emails show that in 2011 Goldman Sach’s Morenz invested “substantially” more than $4million and joined Stratfor’s board of directors. Throughout 2011, a complex offshore share structure extending as far as South Africa was erected, designed to make StratCap appear to be legally independent. But, confidentially, Friedman told StratFor staff : “Do not think of StratCap as an outside organisation. It will be integral… It will be useful to you if, for the sake of convenience, you think of it as another aspect of Stratfor and Shea as another executive in Stratfor… we are already working on mock portfolios and trades”. StratCap is due to launch in 2012. ”

    http://wikileaks.org/the-gifiles.html

    Some information relating to India found in Stratfor.

    “The Indian military is planning a 20,000-troop war drill, one of its largest, near the India-Pakistan border, an Indian army spokesman said Feb. 27, AFP reported. The spokesman said the maneuvers, which will include 200 Russian-made tanks and the country’s latest warplanes, will occur in the Indian state of Rajasthan from March to May. According to an army statement, frontline combat vehicles, artillery, tanks, fighter jets, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, air defense weapons and military radar will be used.”

    http://www.stratfor.com/situation-report/india-military-plans-war-drills-near-pakistan-border

    ”

    The website claims the e-mails, dated between July 2004 and late December 2011, “reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal’s Dow Chemical Co.” Here is a sample of what “informants” were telling Dow about the Bhopal tragedy.

    E-mail from morson@stratfor.com to Stratfor officials, on 23 December 2010: This e-mail appears to profile the leaders of Students for Bhopal Advisory Board, a US-based activist group. The Stratfor analyst describes the Board as “representing the North American grassroots supporters of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal”. The e-mail profiles the seven leaders of the Board in detail, describing their views and what they have done for Bhopal victims.

    E-mail from Ann Sigsby, senior analyst, Allis Information Management to Dow officials, on 21 December 2010: Sigsby talks about PTI, the news agency, doing a report on ‘Bhopal gas verdict, compensation issues made headlines in MP’ as part it annual review of top annual stories. Sigsby tells Dow officials there were “multiple pickups through India media websites” of the PTI story. The e-mail talks of The Hindu’s front page carrying an article on the BJP criticizing the Congress for allowing William Anderson, Union Carbide chief during the gas tragedy “to get away”.

    E-mail from Ann Sigsby, 3 March 2011, to Dow officials: “Things are much quieter today on the Bhopal issue,” Sigsby begins her mail. Sigsby refers to two Indian newspapers writing articles about a protest against Dow participating in a trade show. It quotes a New York Times reporter’s article questioning whether companies were influencing the Indian origin governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal. Dow had reportedly contributed $100,000 to a charitable foundation run under Jindal’s wife’s name. The NYT article noted that Dow had not been fined for a December 2009 chemical spill in St. Charles parish, despite the state proposing a fine for the companies.”

    http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Stalking-Bhopal-the-Stratfor-mails-on-gas-tragedy/Article1-818078.aspx

     

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