Now there is more bad news for Obama: a study published yesterday found he is related to George Bush as well. For the first “Black” candidate, he sure has some white roots.
Obama’s family tree expanded to include the Bushes and the Pitts
It was made clear to all Bureau Chiefs by CNN executives that the revenue generated by advertising and subscriptions for CNN International is only a fraction of the revenue generated by CNN USA. Thus, executives told us that the fate of the CNN news group overall depends largely on the improved profitability of the CNN USA network. This means that the company’s number one priority is to boost ratings for domestic prime time shows. CNN International is deemed important for the news group’s international influence and reputation, but CNNI is not management’s priority focus. Keeping with the media theme, I stumbled across this old essay by then CNN employee Rebecca MacKinnon (she is now a professor in Hong Kong) that pulls back the veil of mainstream media and how financial pressures dictate coverage. This is something that is starting equally to effect the non-mainstream bloggers I talked about in the post below. More importantly, what I found so interesting about the essay was how people driven coverage has become. Such that, while people complain about how mainstream media just pushes out gobs of worthless propaganda, in reality it is simply giving America what it wants and can handle. So news coverage can be broken down into to following formula: Profits=Viewership=Catering To Viewers Tastes=Giving Viewers What They Want Over Then What They Need). That begs the question: If mainstream and non-mainstream media were really to produce the well researched, informative stories that is the model, would American be interested in and understand it?
Priorities of American Global TV: Humanity, National Interest, or Commercial Profit?
A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smart-phones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment. Whoa! There use to be a time when blogging was a simple quiet hobby and a way to stay in touch with like minded people or as BoyCaught often says, “a digital bookmark of where your mind is one a certain topi at a certain point in time. Sorry to see that, for a growing number of people, it has become a bloodsport that may result in injury and even death. Is it really worth it?
…but the target of the South American traffickers have been the failed states along the Gold Coast, where poverty is extreme, where society has been ravaged by war and the institutions of state can be easily bought off - so that instead of enforcement, there is collusion. And no more so than Guinea-Bissau, whose weakness makes it a traffickers dream prey. In recent years the World has finally turned its attention to Africa. However, much of the attention is not really geared to helping Africa help itself but rather for others to help themselves (isn’t this what has traditionally happened with outside involvement in Africa.) Examples are everywhere such as China’s involvement to secure natural resources, American and European involvement to fight terrorism … and now South American involvement to traffic drugs.
How a tiny West African country became the worlds first narco state
Powerbocks are devices that you strap to your feet because you feel that it’s been way too long since you fell down. They’re like stilts, in that they make you a bit taller. They’re like springs, in that they help you jump higher. And they’re like replica swords, in that they prove you have more money than sense. These things look cool. I would absolutely give them a try, even if they do look dorky.
Like the rest of you, I’ve been watching this story slowly crack open for several years now. It’s been 59 hours of TV time; there’s one more hour to go, and I can’t wait for it. But for now, this hour, this episode, felt like a coming together. It was simply breathtaking — the logical, perfect conclusion to all those hours, those years’ of stories, at once exhilarating and devastating, just like you knew it would be.Without revealing too much about the penultimate episode of the Wire, I must admit, I am most sad at the passing of Snoop, one of TV’s most sadistic yet likable bad women. She was a stone-cold killa that died just as she lived. Sad days for TV thugs everywhere.
The soldier they knew as call sign Widow Six Seven was Prince Harry, working in Afghanistan as a forward air controller [FAC] identifying Taliban forces on the ground, verifying coordinates and clearing them as targets for attack. Although the prince has been pulled from Afghanistan after his location was leaked, I gotta give him due props. I mean if there is anyone who has an excuse to avoid such a deployment it’s the second or third in line to the Crown. He provides a great example to all world leaders and their families about what it means to commit to public service. (Wonder what Dubya, would have to say about this.)
One of the most influential OGs of the Internet era (and he dated one of my college classmates) dropping science on a variety of subjects.
*1 Our’s is a surveillance society, so smile for the security cam and get on with it. But let’s, uh, face it, Facebook isn’t the only one watching what you do. True that! We are all under constant surveillance. In the criminal justice system, for instance, one of the first places that the State looks to find incriminating evidence about arrestees is your Facebook or MySpace page. Get arrested for DUI and talk about how you get your liquor on on your webpage and there’s a good chance that info will be used in your prosecution.
[ caught |n between ] Facebook: What They Really Have On You - 2/18/2008
Once again, American TV is outdone by their foreign competitors as well as another benefit of the ever shrinking world where we are not just stuck with what is available locally but can look across borders to satisfy our needs. Torchwood is a equal parts X-Files, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and CSI with an British accent. Good story. Good special effects. Watch and enjoy.