Checking the Google Ads
February 17th 2007 03:37
Ever checked out the Google ads that appear at the top of these pages, or do you only come here to blog? I thought they led directly to a particular site, so I was intrigued by one that said, ‘Shakespeare Buddhism.’ Connecting these two up would take a bit of doing, I thought, so I checked it out. There is no link to a site that tells us Shakespeare was a Buddhist (though I’m sure someone could come up with one). Instead we’re given a list of links in which the words Shakespeare and Buddhism both appear.
The only Shakespeare link amongst the ten links is one for Macbeth, where any year 9 or 10 schoolchild can go to get his home done for him by downloading the material on the site. The site is Skwirk, which presumably stands for school work. Here you’ll find a very good summary and several more shortish chapters on the subject. No hint that Macbeth was a Buddhist, however, something that would seem to be difficult to find evidence for.
I presume there’s more information about Shakespeare on the site called DueNow.com, but I didn’t go further than the home page. DueNow.com claims to have 40,000 essays ready-written for you to download and print out…as if they were your own! No wonder Jeff from Kansas writes in a testimonial: "Kick ass site and papers dudes. You guys are the shizit!" I’m not sure that I’d want to be recommended as a ‘shizit’ but we’ll let that stand. (Apparently there is/was a band called Shizit.) Obviously the site isn’t too good on producing papers on spelling, as another testimonial says, "Very Very Good Papers -- I'm impressed with their quality. I will definately (sic) tell my friends about you."
A third testimonial tells us that he used this site for three years, and now has graduated! But does he understand anything? Sheeesh.
The other sites, apart from one that leads to a share market program, all relate to meditation of one sort or another and Buddhism. I liked the one that asked, ‘Unable to Meditate? And not sure why? Here’s how you can meditate instantly. Free CD.’When you go to the site, it asks another, longer question: ‘Are you seeking a way to get rid of stress, sleep better, eliminate anxiety, relieve depression, boost intelligence, creativity and confidence, slow ageing, increase energy, creating remarkable emotional changes at the deepest level?’ And the answer? ‘Now you can meditate deeper than a Zen monk…’
Oh, dear. What follows is one of those enormous long letters that keep avoiding the subject and how much it’s going to cost you, by offering testimonials and telling you about what you’re missing, and what you should be getting and so on. At one point, early in the piece, it repeats the Zen bit: ‘If you want to meditate as deeply (actually more deeply) than a Zen monk, literally at the touch of a button…’
The whole letter is rather undermined by cutting to the chase when the screen first opens and offering us our ‘free Holosync Meditation CD and special report, valued at $37.’ So if it’s free, what’s the long letter about? Skip to the very bottom and you find indications of the real costs: nearly $500AU, which of course is reduced if you buy by a certain date. And then there are the bonuses. Hmmm.
PS Okay, okay, just when I thought I'd heard everything, I find on
Amazon.com that there is a book on Shakespeare and Buddhism, called Whacking Buddha: the mysterious world of Shakespeare and Buddhism. I couldn't find any more out about it, but the author, Mark Lamonica, has also written a book called, Junkyard Dogs and William Shakespeare, so I leave you to your own conclusions.
The only Shakespeare link amongst the ten links is one for Macbeth, where any year 9 or 10 schoolchild can go to get his home done for him by downloading the material on the site. The site is Skwirk, which presumably stands for school work. Here you’ll find a very good summary and several more shortish chapters on the subject. No hint that Macbeth was a Buddhist, however, something that would seem to be difficult to find evidence for.
I presume there’s more information about Shakespeare on the site called DueNow.com, but I didn’t go further than the home page. DueNow.com claims to have 40,000 essays ready-written for you to download and print out…as if they were your own! No wonder Jeff from Kansas writes in a testimonial: "Kick ass site and papers dudes. You guys are the shizit!" I’m not sure that I’d want to be recommended as a ‘shizit’ but we’ll let that stand. (Apparently there is/was a band called Shizit.) Obviously the site isn’t too good on producing papers on spelling, as another testimonial says, "Very Very Good Papers -- I'm impressed with their quality. I will definately (sic) tell my friends about you."
A third testimonial tells us that he used this site for three years, and now has graduated! But does he understand anything? Sheeesh.
The other sites, apart from one that leads to a share market program, all relate to meditation of one sort or another and Buddhism. I liked the one that asked, ‘Unable to Meditate? And not sure why? Here’s how you can meditate instantly. Free CD.’When you go to the site, it asks another, longer question: ‘Are you seeking a way to get rid of stress, sleep better, eliminate anxiety, relieve depression, boost intelligence, creativity and confidence, slow ageing, increase energy, creating remarkable emotional changes at the deepest level?’ And the answer? ‘Now you can meditate deeper than a Zen monk…’
Oh, dear. What follows is one of those enormous long letters that keep avoiding the subject and how much it’s going to cost you, by offering testimonials and telling you about what you’re missing, and what you should be getting and so on. At one point, early in the piece, it repeats the Zen bit: ‘If you want to meditate as deeply (actually more deeply) than a Zen monk, literally at the touch of a button…’
The whole letter is rather undermined by cutting to the chase when the screen first opens and offering us our ‘free Holosync Meditation CD and special report, valued at $37.’ So if it’s free, what’s the long letter about? Skip to the very bottom and you find indications of the real costs: nearly $500AU, which of course is reduced if you buy by a certain date. And then there are the bonuses. Hmmm.
PS Okay, okay, just when I thought I'd heard everything, I find on
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