Rashid's Blog: A Place for Inquisitive Souls

January 17, 2013– HAWAII – The orange glow atop Hawaii’s Mount Kilauea was a little stronger yesterday (Jan. 15) than it has been in recent weeks. The volcano’s lava lake lapped over the inner ledge of its vent, reaching a new high and bring molten rock closer than ever to the floor of Halema’uma’u crater. The level was about 80 feet (25 meters) below the crater floor, the highest level reached since the summit vent blasted open in March 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. The lava lake last surged on Oct. 23, 2012, when the high mark was measured at 100 feet (31 m) below the crater floor. Since fresh lava appeared atop Kilauea in 2008, the lake level has varied from near the crater to out of sight, more than 650 feet (200 m) beneath the crater floor. The lake sits in a vent, which is actually…

In 2011, the Mississippi River reached record levels. Massive floodgates had to be opened to divert water away from Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where the river rose to within feet of the tops of flood protection levees. Just one year later, droughts in the Midwest have dropped the river to a dangerously low level, threatening both the feasibility of freight transport and, due to rising salinity levels, the viability of New Orleans’s water supply. For the residents of Baton Rouge and New Orleans, however, the record flood of 2011 and low water of 2012 were barely perceptible events. After all, each city is largely divorced from the river, separated by the levee wall. The river has been engineered out of the daily lives of the people that live along it. Even more imperceptible is the massive environmental damage to the surrounding region that has resulted from human modifications to…

Advertizing is more sophisticated now. It is all about planting an idea in the mind of the customers. It is about Inception.

From Bunny advertizing Lijjat Papad to SRK promoting Fair and Handsome as a ‘Mardoon wali Cream’ to ”The roads are full of Idiots’ advert of CEAT tyres, there is a whole lot of sensible and utterly garish adverts to choose from. But does the customer choose wisely or are we just swooned away by big names? Is the advertizing industry considerate while playing with our sensibilities or do they sometimes thrive on our insecurities to make profits?

Here is my guest post on the topic on Akanksha’s blog.

Do read it here – The Inception Industry.