Minority Report Is Here

This is my actual ring. Seriously, unless you're buying diamonds and
other precious stones and such, get your wedding rings online.
You'll save a hella lot of money.

No, I don't mean that we're putting people in jail for crimes they're going to commit in the future. We might be--who knows at this point--but I'm talking about the hyper-intense, very personalized marketing that the film Minority Report depicted.

We all know that if we buy something on Amazon, we start to see related advertisements in other internet activities. It gets really weird when you search for something on your computer, then get an ad for it on your phone. And I understand that when huge corporations run software and hardware companies that are integrated, and cross-platform, and all of that kind of crap, we're bound to start getting weirded out a little.

I've actually been trying to create this phenomenon by searching for odd things, things I don't normally have any interest in, like Harley-Davidson motorcycles in Bing, ladies' golf shoes in Yahoo, and Dymo label makers in AOL, just to see where those things might pop up. Oddly enough, none of that worked. What did, was by accident. My boss needed to get a ride to a Lexus repair shop, and I typed "Lexus Las Vegas" into a Google Maps search. After that, I got used Lexus ads in AOL email for weeks.

This is not an ad for you,
it's the targeted ad
for ME.

I unwittingly prompted this again just a couple of days ago. A couple of weeks ago, I bought matching wedding rings to replace our old ones, to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. I bought them from eBay, having learned that jewelry is crazy expensive from traditional sources. I got lovely tungsten carbide/carbon fiber rings for $14.99 each, no joke. And no shipping charge! But that isn't what flagged me. No, just a few days ago, I got it in my head to find out what the rings would have cost if I'd bought them from standard jewelry retailers.

I tried some local Vegas outlets like Tower of Jewels, to no avail. I tried Zayre, and couldn't find our rings. Then I tried Kay Jewelers ("Every Kiss Begins with Kay!"), and found our exact same rings. The cost $299 each. Wow, did I ever get a great deal, and wow is Kay ripping people off! After I found that out, I closed the browser window, and didn't think another thing about it. Then, while cruising the inernets, I was stunned to see the ad you see at the right. That's my ring, that's Kay Jewelers, and they really apparently want me to spend $274 more dollars than I did for the same ring. Again. Or something.

This is really no big deal of course. It's just deeply weird. I mean, I did use Google to search for a "tungsten carbide men's wedding band." I did click Kay Jewelers' matching picture, along with a pictures that matched from a couple of other sources. I'm just kind of surprised that Kay puts together the actual image search into an ad that specific. They can't know I already have the rings, and wouldn't dream of spending that much!  And when I think  of other pictures I've searched, I'm a little horrified at what might pop up on a any random web page!

And PS., Kay: I doubt I'm going to surprise "her" with matching men's wedding bands! But thanks, just the same.

Journalist Sure He Was Wiretapped

Yes, I'm double-dipping into the Countdown with Keith Olbermann clips tonight, but it ties together neatly with the previous post about un-Constitutional surveillance conducted by the Bush Administration. Here, Olbermann talks to journalist James Risen, who is certain the he himself was wiretapped. Check it out.

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Ex-NSA Russell Tice Spills More to Keith Olbermann

This is scary stuff. We suspected that there was more going on with the whole "warrantless wiretapping" and data mining activities of the Bush Administration than they were letting on. Hell, we knew it, we just couldn't prove it. At last, we have a whistle-blower in ex-NSA agent, Russell Tice. Even he won't tell us everything, but what he says is quite disquieting, and damning of Bush Administration policies.

Tice spoke to Keith Olbermann last night about this, and tonight we have part 2. Pleasent dreams. . .

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So, Big Brother Has Been Watching!

This is a rather stunning exclusive report from Countdown with Keith Olbermann, regarding the Bush Administration's use of warrantless wiretaps, data mining, and various other surveillance techniques against ordinary Americans. Apparently all of us, all the time. It sounds fantastic, too epic in scope to be possible. But in his interview with Russell Tice, Olbermann has a real stunner of a story on his hands. Watch. . .

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More Greg Palast: On Data Mining

Greg Palast is overdue to burst through to the public consciousness. If you haven't read his stuff yet, do so now.

[Excerpt]

Busted & Crimes of The Times
Published August 1st, 2007 in Articles
By Greg Palast

Cutely buried in the 18th paragraph in a story about Alberto Gonzales on Sunday was a slyly-worded updated confession by the New York Times that, in 2004, the Bush Administration leaned on its editors to spike a story about illegal invasions of citizens’ private records (”data mining”). The Times editors smothered the story. They finally ran it - a year later - after Bush was safely re-elected.

As a journalist, this makes me want to throw up.

For two reasons:

To find out the reasons, you must visit: GregPalast.com