reconsider...
champion of disturbed people
with full intention of
piling on the
anti-katie couric bandwagon...
will katie couric support
this child murderer like she did
that other one?
(check out
pictures of those involved)
political-media dynamic
"I don't want to cut into any of those TV shows that are getting ready to air...for the sake of the economy." --President Bush ~9pm during
his primetime disrupting press conference.
despite this moment of levity, most of the networks had
already switched back to normal programming.
the
washington post and
ny times naturally spin it in their anti-bush way
- "And it was the president who blinked first"
- "though Bush runs the country, wiser men run the broadcast networks"
then explain
all those terrible shows they keep greenlighting
3 months is 3 months
i don't understand all
the complaining [bugmenot login] about the time it took to form the first democratically elected government in iraq's history:
Iraq's new prime minister announced Wednesday that he had submitted a full list of cabinet members, opening the way for a multiethnic government to assume power and end a three-month political stalemate that has appeared to be fueling violence.
there is nearly 3 months between election day (first tuesday of november) to
inauguration in the U.S. and we've been doing it for over 200 years. i think a country doing it for the first time should be cut some slack.
lefty has no leg to stand on
knee-jerk lefty Josh Marshall
attempts to make a point about the Republican party being outta control rule breakers. he cobbles together the bolton nomination, the judicial filibuster issue amongst many lefty hobby borses to try to illustrate his point.
"The only problem is that both Houses of the United States Congress have operated for more than 200 years by the committee system, which says that that logic isn't the one we follow."
except of course when it doesn't--budgets, trade agreements, war authorizations...partisan purposes...
"[Y]ou see a leadership...which wants to win every time at any cost and is pretty much indifferent to the existing rules if they get in the way"
i suppose when one is a partisan on a losing side, merely winning is too much to ask
"[T]he Republican party is becoming an anti-constitutional party. They're not comfortable with the rule of law -- inside the Capitol or out."
the constitution calls for "advice and consent" regarding judicial nominations...the "filibuster" is not granted in the constitution, merely the right for each legislative body to
set its own rules...and those rules allow for changes...
technically, the republican party would be following the rules. perhaps if 'convention' or 'tradition' were used instead of 'rules', there may be a point. but i'm not responsible for the poorly constructed arguments of Josh Marshall.
spielberg ponders alien encounters
steven spielberg hopes/believes the first aliens humans encounter will be peaceful and benevolent like the ones in his earlier "
close encounters" or "
E.T.", rather than the baddies from his upcoming "
war of the worlds"
"I can't believe anybody would travel such vast distances bent on destruction. I believe anybody who would travel such vast distances are curious explorers, not conquerors," Spielberg said. "Carrying weapons a hundred-thousand light-years is quite a schlepp. I believe it's easier to travel 100,000 light-years with their versions of the Bible."
i always suspected
the conquistadors were misunderstood...
i guess when one is out promoting a blockbuster,
always look on the bright side of life (if that audio link didn't work, try a
text only link)
and i think spielberg forgot about the
conquistadors...
where the buffalo roam...
a story hitting
national newscasts hit close to home...about a mile from my parents' home specifically.
a herd of buffalo 'broke out' of a farm (near the stevenson-greenspring valley intersection for locals), took a leisurely stroll along the road, at one point approaching the highway, settling on an apartment complex tennis court, after which the herd is finally corralled.
local news coverage (with video):
nbc affiliate wbal |
cbs affiliate wjz
it's not a tumor...
a danish study published in the april issue of Neurology reveals
no link between cell phone use and tumors.
however,
a more cautious take on the study suggests the jury is still out on
prolonged (ie 10yr) effects of cell phone use.
in a personal angle, one of
my dad's patients served as a lawyer in one of the first legal cases involving cell phones and cancer. that suit did not succeed. my dad says she is a nice lady though.
being as cynical as possible...
i'd say george lopez's wife may actually deserve 50% when they divorce considering she
donated her kidney to him.
...i know...that's terrible...
does this mean xXx 4 starring bow wow
an eye-opening
slate article reveals the finances behind some of those big budget movies hollywood serves up.
contrary to expectations, financial options actually made angelina jolie vehicle
lara croft: tomb raider a low-risk venture for Paramount. using international loopholes, the studio actually
receives ~$22 million upfront. further, by pre-selling distribution rights to various countries (where the video game is popular) and a pay television license to showtime, paramounts pockets an mind-boggling
~$70 million.
essentially, the budget of a marketable blockbuster can be paid for in advance.
At no cost to its treasury, Paramount launched a potential franchise—don't forget that sequels can be financed with the same "risk management" techniques.
Time Warner's New Line subsidiary did similar moves for the LotR trilogy
Remember all those stories about how New Line was betting its entire future on the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Not quite. New Line covered almost the entire cost by using German tax shelters, New Zealand subsidies, and pre-sales.
since relatively low cost art house or indie films may not allow for these options, they actually may pose greater risk to studios.
as my title suggests... expect xXx 4 starring
bow wow (no more "lil") in our future.
grasping to justify my tv watching
the washington post and NY times both serve up articles countering the '
the idiot box' perception of tv. (sometimes i wonder whether these efforts are coordinated or mere coincidence...)
update note: i think these articles are deemed relevant due to
tv turnoff week--incidentally that tv-b-gone is ridiculous)
the
WaPo article [bugmenot login] deals (more simply) with tv creators/writers engaging audiences more with inside jokes.
the NY times magazine's
entry [bugmenot login] proves more ambitious. Stephen Johnson refutes the notion that tv is 'dumbing down'. (although i'm not so sure about his idea of it being good for you...)
ironically, by borrowing from some low-brow sources, television becomes more complex, often 'better.' Johnson points to landmark 1980s 'hill street blues' as a defining moment in television as it married good quality writing with the multi-threaded narrative structure from
soap operas. by integrating
video game elements such as 'twists' of conventional rules, even fluidity of the rules themselves, game shows (the progenitors of reality shows) become more interactive and engaging.
i guess i can use this as an excuse--justification for all my tv viewing.
halfway through ordeal
it's been over 3 weeks since i had the
car accident. after allstate's assessment of
the situation, i decided to take allstate's money and get the car fixed instead of dealing with the unknowns of buying a used car.
i gave the final go ahead to start repairs last week. but it appears i'm still about 3 weeks away from getting my car back. overall, i will have been without my own car for about 6 weeks... good thing i don't drive that much....
UN a sum of its parts
the UN Human Rights Commission essentially deemed the current US actions--several court cases have been filed, access by the Red Cross--as sufficient to not require a fresh UN probe. but, the story behind the headline '
UN Rejects Bid to Probe Gitmo Treatment' illustrates one of the problems with the UN in general. some of the 8 countries voting in favor of the failed resolution raises issues: Cuba (which championed the effort), China, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
why are some of these serial human rights abusers
even on the Human Rights Commission? China and Cuba have atrocious records on political dissidents. the Sudanese government's role in
that country's turmoil is undeniable. and while not necessarily a human rights violator, the recent election of Mugabe in Zimbabwe
looks suspicous at best.
while the goals and ideals of the UN may be noble, ultimately it is the sum of its member nations. unfortunately, many of these nations (including the US occassionly) do not necessarily behave in ways to fulfill those goals and ideals.
NFL primetime
the recent
NFL primetime shuffle [
bugmenot login] reflects many aspects of society: sports, media conglomerates, media distribution, even management-labor issues.
basic summary
- in 2006, Monday Night Football shifts from ABC to ESPN and ~30min earlier
- in 2006, the Sunday night game will move from ESPN to NBC
- the NFL will receive $12.4 billion over ~8 years for these primetime games
subtext
- Disney keeps a weekly primetime game in the family.
while MNF was a solid (if declining) ratings performer, it yielded ~$100 million in yearly losses. while wall street may like ABC getting more profitable, the loss of a promotional vehicle could hurt.
Disney stablemate ESPN picks up the MNF franchise, but ratings may not significantly improve over current Sunday night games. regardless, expect cable bills to go up as Disney will (use this as an excuse to) hike fees.
- NBC turns fall sunday nights over to the NFL
football will be a solid ratings performer and good counterprogramming to 'desperate housewives' (incidentally where's my L&O fave
Criminal Intent gonna go?) perhaps more importantly, the former #1 network
hopes the NFL can help its flagging line-up with promotions.
- with the NHL's
dim prospects, fans have to be wary of labor-management issues. the NFL owners are
bickering over how to divide up the billions the NFL generates. this issue likely spills over to the collective bargaining agreement with the players.
the customer is always wrong
verizon ceo
(inadvertly?) reveals why cell phone service may not be all that great:
"Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?" he said. "The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the basement."
Seidenberg said it's not Verizon's responsibility to correct the misconception by giving out statistics on how often Verizon's service works inside homes or by distributing more detailed coverage maps, showing all the possible dead zones. He pointed out that there are five major wireless networks, none of which works perfectly everywhere. [emphasis added]
translation: customers are demanding too much service for the ~$50 they pay a month...and since all the providers have bad service, we have to accept spotty service...and be happy to spend that ~$50 a month.
a whiff of incompetence
sometimes, i think paul krugman comes up with a headline, but forgets it at some point through every column. after a coupla error-filled columns regarding health care system (exhibits
1 and
2 based on the
same debunked facts), krugman turns his attention to
'staglation' with
his latest columnprimarily, krugman errs with his overly broad definition of stagflation--"rising inflation in an economy still well short of full employment"--that would apply to pretty much
every recession. 'stagflation' was coined to reflect terrible economic conditions like those of the
1970s US economy, not to be applied simply for partisan purposes.
strangely, krugman interjects facts and statements which undercut his own argument:
- "measured unemployment isn't bad by historical standards, and inflation is in the low single digits."
- "The official unemployment rate is 5.2 percent - roughly equal to the average for the Clinton years."
- "We shouldn't overstate the case: we're not back to the economic misery of the 1970's."
krugman includes suppositions, implications and inferences which torture the truth on the job market, then continues with a series of potential economic shocks that could spur true staglation.
krugman concludes
"It all adds up to a mild case of stagflation: inflation is leading the Fed to tap on the brakes, even though this doesn't look or feel like a full-employment economy."
like pregnancy, there's no such thing as "a mild case" of staglation--you either have it or you don't.
china's 'evolving' protest policy
| relations between china and japan have deteriorated to the point that anti-japanese protests in mainland china have become increasingly unruly. the chinese government hasn't intervened to head off protest as it did ~15 years ago, but want to "avoid giving protesters 'a pretext to vent their dissatisfaction' over other issues" | |
both countries are saying the expected things about easing tensions, but there are
much deeper issues--nationalism, the UN, etc.
yankee hypocrites
suddenly, yankees fans are worried about fan interference.
but yankees fans weren't always so worried about it... compare and contrast:
naturally, new york media is
rallying behind their man [
bugmenot login]:
"Don't suspend Sheffield; praise him."
it ultimately all boils down to one thing...
it's all about the yankees
AARP has to spend member dues somehow
the AARP sponsored a drug price study so weak, it needs a walker (that was bad...)
the study involves the increase in wholesale prices of 195 brand-name drugs and compared it to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
there are several issues with this study:
- why focus solely on brand-name drugs?
generics serve a major role in prescriptions (7 of the top 9 drugs by prescription are generics, i.e. only 2 of the top 9 are brand-name), yet the study apparently mentions them only in passing: "[W]holesale prices for 75 commonly used generic drugs rose 0.5% in 2004."
a more relevant study would be a prescription-weighted index involving both top
brand-name drugs and
generics. this remains especially relevant considering
patent expiration of blockbuster drugs.
- why compare wholesale prices to Consumer Price Index?
instead of comparing statistics of different scope, the AARP simply could have relied on the
CPI report itself--specifically page 7 on that pdf--which indicates the percent increase in prescription drugs increased 3.3% from 2003 to 2004. if the 2.7% headline CPI number is good enough to use for comparison, why not simply use the 3.3% prescription drug component of CPI?
- why do the study at all?
the simple answer to all these questions is the AARP had arrived at a preconceived
conclusion (drug companies bad...) and steered the study to bear out that conclusion.
great way to spend member dues.
accident-insurance hijinx
the continuing saga of
my car accident (follow link for pix)the initial insurance info i had for the other driver turned out to an expired insurance policy. at that point, i was resigned to having my insurance cover the damage with me paying the deductible, hoping my premiums wouldn't rise.
my insurance company's assessor came up with an estimate of ~$5000.
but, after tracking him down (and applying some of my spanish linguistic skills), i got the other driver's updated insurance info. i drove the busted-up car to an approved shop and dropped it off the middle of last week.
monday i received a phone call informing me that the insurance company considered my car a total loss! for a 2000 Honda Accord
SE...with only 35,000 miles...that i was able to drive to the shop...would require repairs of ~$10,000....mind-boggling!
my main concern is having to accept a car not-exactly-equivalent-to-mine (considering the low mileage) as a replacement.
i'm going into the shop tomorrow to consider my options.
failing grade for the professor
paul krugman [
bugmenot login] continues his (unbroken?) streak of at best poorly researched, more likely partisan-driven entries. the latest
attempts to address health care [
bugmenot login]
skipping over the fact that krugman invokes "[w]ell-informed business executives" now that it suits him, krugman (correctly) points to medical innovation and/or improvements as a primary driver of medical cost increases. (surprisingly) krugman continues with good points about insurance coverage and actually paying for some of this stuff.
unfortunately, the princeton professor trips up with regard to attempting to demonstrate ineffeciency of US health care. specifically, the statistics he cites to prove it:
Finally, the U.S. health care system is wildly inefficient....We spend far more per person on health care than any other country - 75 percent more than Canada or France - yet rank near the bottom among industrial countries in indicators from life expectancy to infant mortality.
[btw, i'm waiting for the krugman article suggesting education reform....substitute 'education' for 'health care' and krugman would could come to a similar conclusion regarding education]
the bogus-sounding nature of this stat prompted simple research (google) which reveals the reason for this statistic: "
Different countries count differently"
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) definition, all babies showing any signs of life - such as muscle activity, a gasp for breath or a heartbeat - should be counted as a live birth. The U.S. strictly follows this definition. But many other countries do not
other key quotes from the above article: "underreporting also seems apparent" | "they sometimes reported the deaths of babies in their care as miscarriages or stillbirths" | etc
back to krugman, he gleefully states "This last point is, in a way, good news" since this may lead to his much cherished panacea, tax increases.
i wonder how the professor would handle a student who submitted such poorly researched material....
golf fans
watching parts of the
the masters this weekend reminded me of something that annoys me about golf.
specifically, golf fans appear to be the biggest bandwagon fans going. i am convinced that gallery would have cheered just as loudly for Tiger Woods as they would have for Chris DiMarco.
i suppose they could be cheering for good golf (btw tiger's chip at the 16th was ridiculous), but how about picking a side...?
stop the madness
having already 'updated' childhood favorites
transformers and
rocky & bullwinkle with lackluster entries (and the proposed
live-action transformers movie doesn't sound promising either), show biz continues to assault childhood icons:
sesame street has decided to
tone down cookie monster.
the traditional "c is for cookie" to be replaced by "a cookie is a sometimes food". that's ridiculous.
at least
pb&j sandwiches can be made with impunity.
while i give smuckers credit for
uncrustables, going for a patent was a bit much.
accident follow-up
the last coupla days were quite ridiculous. but i'm finally able to follow-up
my accidenthere are some visual aids:
this is the best i could do with regards to a before of my 2000 honda accord
se
the front two-thirds of the car remains pretty much in decent shape
however, the rear of the car was not so fortunate. essentially, my accord sedan was converted to a coupe
the impact flung open the coin tray (following pic is a 'dramatization')
despite a lack of indicators or much of a rear view, the drive home wasn't that bad.
fortunately, speedy gonzales and pinky the brain suffered no injuries.
sports wheeling-and-dealing
the insanity of publically subsidized stadiums for private enterprises (run by m/billionaires) continues with the
NY Jets manhattan stadium. the $720 million offer by the Jets is by no means chump change, but the city is "turning down two competing proposals worth more money."
the justification/rationalizations include jobs, olympics, blah, blah, blah... i don't envy new yorkers the inevitable increases in cost nor the traffic nightmares.
Bob Herbert of the NY Times (with whom i
rarely agree) effectively
summarizes the ridiculousness [
bugmenot login]:
To put this in perspective, consider that the $600 million is nearly equivalent to the entire amount ($635 million) that Woody paid for the team. In effect, the public would be reimbursing him for the cost of the franchise.
no (april fool's) joke
on my way to meet
dan and michelle, i got in a bit of a car wreck.
traffic stopped pretty quickly so i pulled into the shoulder as a precaution to avoid hitting the car in front of me. the guy behind me had a similar idea, but unfortunately had much worse reaction time than me. he proceeded to plow into my car at such a pace that the little coin tray flung open and all my change went flying.
i'll post some pictures for posterity's sake in a couple days. but, in the meantime, the best description is that my honda accord sedan basically became a coupe--meaning the trunk collapsed in. the crazy thing is that i was able to drive back home with only some slight difficulty--the bent trunk lid blocked my rear view and the rear indicators were outta commission.
i have a feeling this won't be fun process dealing with the aftermath.
premature 'shark jumping' calls
i'm a fan of the site
jump the shark, but i think it contributes to a gotcha mentality. any time something happens which some dislike, they pounce as if the show no longer works.
the amazing race is a show long overshadowed by survivor, american idol and the apprentice. yet with a solid and building audience, amazing race broke through with a few emmy wins over those higher profile shows along the way to becoming a solid nielsens performer.
yet the last coupla seasons, critics have been quick to point to not-so-nice behavior by specific teams as possible tipping points towards declines:
- jonathan baker's mistreatment of former playmate wife victoria fuller promted a
backlash /
questions, a
dr phil special, even a
blog in response
- this season, survivor couple rob and amber's tactics have prompted similar
complaintscompetition isn't always neat and tidy...seeing the good and bad of human behavior is part of the package.
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