Friday, June 11, 2010

So much depressing news, so little desire to attend to any of it. There's oil sludge that is changing our way of life, whether or not we realize it; there are wars and rumors of war, (as always, actually); there are vitriolic election campaigns expending enough resources to fix the problems the respective candidates are promising to fix once they are elected - yeah, right - just take that campaign money and fix the problems now, so much more useful and persuasive to me than all this mudslinging going on...

The oil issue may well prove to be as significant as major climate changes or shifting tectonic plates, at least insomuch as it's consequences impact human society and global ecology.

I have posited before and will repeat now that this planet will survive our follies; it is we who have the most to lose. Should our ecological system have to strike a new balance, it will. That balance need not include viability for human existence. How important will the bottom line of anyone's spreadsheets be then?

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Too Much TV

People say one shouldn't watch too much tv, and now that I've been exposed to so much CNN, I have to agree. Seems like there's been a shakeup at CNN recently, and I don't think much of the current lineup of anchors, though I'm glad enough that at least one is evidently gone for good. What's left, though, seems to lean toward the inane, the melodramatic, and the obsessed - with trivialities and ratings (that's redundant, isn't it?).

The proper way to watch tv is via some version of DVR or download that allows one to select programming, omit crass commercials (if not the no less subtle but surely shorter product placement integrations), and pause, rewind, fast-forward, and delete at will.

I have observed that as programming and access rapidly morph for the upcoming generation, traditional tv sets marketed to older viewers are simply exploding in screen size. One can now watch/interact with feeds either live or canned on viewing surfaces ranging from itty bitty to larger than one might have domicile space for housing such monstrosities. All I can do is dream of being able to afford a house that can hold the screen of my dreams . . . while I fend off incipient signs of carpal tunnel from extensive use of my handheld devices . . .

Perhaps, as Shannon suggests, the solution is less viewing time . . . no, that can't be it; can it? Can it - yes! that's the solution . . . packrats, anyone?