Rolling Stone has a cover story about HBO’s vampire-sex show True Blood, and for the photo… well, they got stars Anna Paquin, Alexander Skarsgard and Stephen Moyer naked and sprayed them blood.

“They’re Hot. They’re Sexy. They’re Undead,” the cover text reads.

It made me think about where our concepts of “evil” come from. I have met a lot of seemingly “evil” people in my time. However, none of them sucked blood, knew how to fly, ate people or shapeshifted. None of them were risen from the dead and there was absolutely nothing supernatural about them. Their “evil” deeds revolved around bad business, bad politics and even worse choices in life. Mainly they caused pain and suffering to others and themselves.

I watched a documentary about the ultimate “evil people” our society has known: Serial Killers. While some mimicked what they saw on TV and were believed to be “evil”, almost all were a far cry from the powderfaced teen heartbeats committing supernatural atrocities. These real serial killers were not supernatural or influenced by some “evil” supernatural power. Even more disturbingly,they were mostly the victims of abuse themselves and without a doubt, mentally ill.

So where exactly does this image of “evil” come from? Pale faced demons, ghouls,and blood sucking, and human eating Vampires?

The answer that keeps repeating is simple: Religious scripture written centuries ago by males frantically attempting to exercise mass mind control over an ever increasing impoverished, discontent and dissident population.

The only “historic” record ever of anyone ever coming across these “entities” has been in the bibles and religious holy books of the world.

Our media mimics the fantastic images we have been taught to fear for centuries. It may be the most ancient form of mind control: control by fear.

If you had no religious knowledge or context for this stuff, then would these images mean anything to you? If that was the case, then what would real “evil” look like?

“You don’t get 500 Million Friends Without Adding A Few Enemies”

The Social Network Movie

Top 10 Most Success Inspiring Music Videos Of All Time : #9 Money By Pink Floyd

Walk away from Provocation

According to Stanford biologist Robert Sapolsky, while observing baboons, he  found there was a set of personality traits linked reliably with lower levels of stress hormones. One of these was the ability to walk away from provocations that might send a normal baboon into a snarling hissy fit. Interestingly, this less aggressive personality turned out to be exceedingly effective: The nice baboons remained near the top of the troop hierarchy about three times longer than the baboons who were easily provoked into a fight. They also had a lot more sex, which is a great stress reliever.

Source: Wired

“Make customers feel important and appreciated. Treat them as individuals. Always use their name and find ways to compliment them, but be sincere. People value sincerity. It creates good feeling and trust. Think about ways to generate good feelings about doing business with you. Customers are very sensitive and know whether or not you really care about them. Thank them every time you get a chance. “

I am always dumbfounded by the customer service of businesses large and small and their sheer negligence to the very people that pay their paychecks.

How valuable can it be to your business to make your customer feel significant?

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard ” It is not our policy but we will do it this one time, but next time we will not.”

What sense does that make?

When you say that to your customer they are thinking ” That’s right that you won’t do it next time, because I will be at the business next door who will.”

If you are going to make an exception, then make the customer feel important and make sure that they know that you are joyfully doing this for them because you value their business and that they are important to you and your business.

You are making the exception anyway, the difference is only how you express it and how you make tour customer feel.

Come from a place of truly and sincerely excellent service.

Instead of saying ” It’s not our policy. We won’t do it next time.” Try” I’m so glad you asked for that Mr.Jones. Although we don’t normally do that for others we absolutely would be delighted to do that for you. Thank you so much for your business and loyalty.”

In this way you build raving fans rather than reluctant adversaries.

http://cdblog.centraldesktop.com/apathy.jpg

This photo is a still selection from the feature film Serpent And The Sun : Tales Of An Aztec Apprentice

Stuart had studied with several brain experts who had taught him about brainwave technology and inducing trance states through repetitive tones similar to the metronome.

A metronome is any device that produces regular, metrical ticks (beats). These ticks represent a fixed, regular aural pulse; some metronomes also include synchronized visual motion (e.g. pendulum-swing). The metronome dates back to the early 19th century. Though the metronome was conceived as a tool for music, some musicians consider it to be a highly controversial tool in this respect (see Criticism of metronome use): there are musicians who reject the metronome altogether. However brainwave technology experts embraced the metronome and use these tones for quickly and consistently creating the desired brainwaves.

We decided that we could develop an audio CD that could get you high.

I had a homerun success with Herbal Ecstacy (which had sold millions of units world wide). (Read more on Herbal Ecstacy here.) I had expanded the company to offices in over 18 countries. I was sure that I could pump millions of the new “Get High” CD’s through my distribution chain and make it a huge success.

We passed the CD’s around to the press, it was even written up in the London Observer. However, the public response was dismal. Although most people felt some effect from it and several people felt a pronounced “high” from listening to the music the concept of a music that gets you high was too far out there for people to grasp at the time.

After 3 months we discontinued the project and to this date it remains one of the few products I have ever done to sell under 10,000 units.

Fast forward 13 years to the summer of 2010. Ever hear of idosing? The latest craze that is sweeping the internet involves young people putting on their headphones, draping a hood over their heads and quickly floating into the world of ‘digital highs’.

Now lawmakers are quickly looking for a way to put a stop to iDosing.

According to the Daily Mail “They believe the repetitive drone-like music will give them a ‘high’ that takes them out of reality, only legally available and downloadable on the Internet.

The craze has so far been popular among teenagers in the U.S. but given how easily available the videos are, it is just a matter of time before it catches on in Britain.

Those who come up with the ‘doses’ claim different tracks mimic different sensations you can feel by taking drugs such as Ecstasy or smoking cannabis.

The reactions have been partially skeptical but some songs have become wildly popular, receiving nearly half a million hits on YouTube. ”

“Oops, wrong number? “

In the King James Version of the Bible, the well-known verse of Revelation 13:18 reads:

“Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” However, a newly discovered fragment from the Book of Revelation courtesy Egypt Exploration Society mentions 616 in the third line – chi, iota, sigma.

Bible scholars have footnotes saying the number translated from the original Greek could be 616 and in light of the new evidence experts now concur that the new photographic evidence of an ancient fragment of papyrus from Revelation indeed indicates the number is indeed 616, instead of 666.

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