by cameron | Mar 2, 2008 | Cuba, Uncategorized
Marcelo pointed me to this excellent article by Toni Solo, based in Central America, which highlights the bias in the reporting about Cuba in the UK and US media. It’s worth reading, even if you don’t give a damn about Cuba, in order to better understand how the media works to discredit people or countries which buck the system. Thanks again for the link Marcelo.
| Cuba was ranked at 51 in the 2007 UN Human Development Index. One place above Mexico. You will never read that fact in corporate mainstream reporting on Cuba. Nor will you read that around 90% of those eligible voted in Cuba’s recent elections. Nor will you read a thorough comparison between Cuba and similar countries like, say, Jamaica or the Dominican Republic. |
| The Human Development Index is a comparative measure of standard of living among UN member countries. In last year’s Human Development Index, Jamaica sits at 101 and Dominican Republic at 79. Among Caribbean countries only the Bahamas, at 49, and Barbados, at 31, do better than Cuba. Among Central American countries only Costa Rica, at 48, does better. |
| Reporting on Cuba in the corporate liberal press goes to incredible lengths to avoid any realistic account of Cuba. |
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by cameron | Mar 2, 2008 | science, singularity, Uncategorized
If you haven’t read / aren’t reading Warren Ellis’ work, then you are seriously missing out on one of the most exciting things happening in media (for my money anyway). I only discovered his stuff about a year ago and I’ve become a complete fanboi. Ellis has been writing comics for about 15 years, including some mainstream titles like IRON MAN and FANTASTIC FOUR, but he’s best loved for his original titles such as TRANSMETROPOLITAN (about a Hunter S. Thompson-esque journalist in a dystopian future America), GLOBAL FREQUENCY (about a loosely-coupled team of expert terrorism fighters), and PLANETARY (about a small team of super-powered humans saving the world from the forces of evil, domestic and interstellar). His writing is edgy, political, taps into transhumanism and the singularity, and he usually works with terrific artists who create stunning imagery to flesh-out his stories. He’s got a new web comic called FREAKANGELS which looks like it’s going interesting places as well.
Anyway, this post was prompted by one of his blogs posts this morning (see below) about the Thunderbirds and I was thinking about how shows like that (and, of course, Star Trek), considered camp and silly even at the time by many, inspired a generation. And I was thinking – what are today’s shows which are likely to inspire the next generation of adults to push the boundaries of science, art and business? What shows on TV today are building a vision for a better future, one we can aspire to, strive for, work towards? Most of the shows I love today (or have loved recently), the futuristic shows, are dystopian. BSG, Firefly (RIP)… ummm… hard to think of any others right now. While they each have some cool toys and technologies, I don’t think either of them contain aspirational messages. I do, however, get a lot of aspirational futures from the books I read. Charles Stross, William Gibson, Vernor Vinge – all write about near-term futures which get me bloody excited. But not TV.
Got any suggestions?
| I loved THUNDERBIRDS. Save the world, go back to your island base, get rat-arsed, smoke a thousand cigarettes and hit on the Quality and the Asian girl. These are the lessons tv taught us back then. . I will go now, because Ariana says these notes are taking on the tone of a guy on a desert island talking to his pet coconut. |
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by cameron | Mar 1, 2008 | Uncategorized
Rushing around this morning, driving my kids to piano practice. In a hurry, so the ubiquitous iPod wasn’t jacked into the car stereo. Instead I turned on the radio for the five minute trip to piano.
After a minute, Hunter (age 7) asks me from the back seat “Hey Dad – where’s your iPod?” I explain it’s in my bag, I haven’t bothered to plug it in.
“But where’s the music coming from?” he asks.
“The radio,” I explain.
“Is that like TV?” asks his brother Taylor (also age 7).
I look at their faces in the rearview mirror and realize they have no idea what radio is. They have never heard me listen to radio. They are amazed that music is playing without the iPod plugged in.
If you have any shares in Austereo – welcome to your future marketplace. It doesn’t even know you exist.
by cameron | Feb 27, 2008 | Uncategorized
Was @rambn the first person to twitter about today’s UK earthquake?
by cameron | Feb 27, 2008 | Uncategorized
I was scanning my Bopo Visa card statement this morning and I noticed they charge a 25 cent fee every time I use the card and a $1.00 fee every time I top up the card with funds (it’s essentially a debit card). I’m no expert on bank fees, but does this seem excessive to you? I’m not sure if it’s just that i’m seeing the fees broken out individually for every transaction instead of seeing them aggregated as a single monthly line item and that’s grating on me or if they really are excessive. Thoughts?
