Random Ruminations of My Mind

‘Ars Technica’ has a really interesting article (link) about a study conducted at Indiana University which compares the substantiveness of ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ with other news broadcasts such as the ‘CBS Evening News’. The results of the study aren’t really surprising to me, as much as the conclusion made by the author of the study, Julia Fox. Basically, the study found that the amount of coverage of the real issues in the news, as opposed to the irrelevant hooplah surrounding them, was just as much in The Daily Show as in the nightly news.

So is this surprising to me? Not at all. Networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, etc) compete with eachother all the time to gain ratings, and that isn’t limited to prime-time entertainment. That whole idea of whatever sells has induced itself into their respective nightly news broadcasts. After all, these news broadcasts are run by large corporations which have shareholders to answer to. So instead of focussing on the real issues at hand, we get filtered content which drives up the ratings. Not real news.

Now the conclusion Fox comes up with is quite surprising. She goes on to explain that if people are looking for real in-depth coverage of the issues at hand, then they should look elsewhere, because neither the Daily Show nor network news broadcasts cut it. Personally, I don’t look to either for any of the sort. Although The Daily Show serves its purpose by providing humour (and I agree with Afreen, this guy should be president of the United States (link)), the network news broadcasts serve no purpose whatsoever other than providing news equivalent to cheap tabloid gossip. I have found the BBC as well as CBC to be a more reliable news source. Its sad that millions of people choose CBS/ABC/NBC as their primary source of world and domestic news. Sad indeed…

By now I’m sure most of you have heard or read about President Pervez Musharraf’s recent visit to New York City for the UN general assembly as well as to promote his new book, “In the Line of Fire”. And its also likely that you’ve heard about what he had to say on a CBC interview (read transcript here) regarding Canada’s role in Afghanistan and the war on terror. If you haven’t, allow me to give you a summary.

Basically, Musharraf said in the interview that Canadians shouldn’t be “crying and shout all around the place that there are coffins” over losing a few soldiers because when they put on that uniform, they should expect casualties as a repercussion of war. I really don’t see what the big hooplah is with what he said because it certainly makes sense to me. I mean, when the CBC has headlines like “Musharraf downplays Canadian contribution”, I don’t quite think that’s what he was trying to do. Instead, I just think he was trying to say that his country, Pakistan, is not making it harder for Canadians for the point of doing so, but is doing all it can for itself and apparently has lost 500 soldiers in the process. Sure, he may not have said it very tactfully, but this guy is a General, the chief of staff of the armed forces, and there ain’t no sugar coating where he comes from.

As an aside, check out this post (link) on a blog I found on the net. Its so funny, you’re going to roll on the floor laughing. There’s a bunch of anti-musharraf protesters taking part in a rally in NYC. Watch the video, and listen to what the lone pro-musharraf guy has to say to them. Absolutely hilarious! And then read the email correspondence between the blogger, Ali Eteraz, and the organizers of the rally. Funny stuff.

man, i can’t stand it when he does that salute… its like how queen elizabeth has her little wave, hitler had his whatever you call it… saddam even has… err, had his own way of saluting the crowd… anyway, funny interview, check it out…

It was sad to see Tie Domi, nicknamed the ‘Enforcer’ and a fan favourite of the Toronto Maple Leafs, retire from the hockey club. The one guy who gave 110% every night, even though he may not have produced any fruitful stats, or shown any dazzling skill, you could always count on him to give you that extra boost of energy to the team when they needed it most. He played the game with tremendous heart and courage and that’s why he was liked so much by his fans, and by his teamates.

Domi announced his retirement yesterday at a press conference in Toronto. I think it was more his age that caught up with him rather than anything that prompted it. The guy is like 36 years old, and after 16 years of fighting, hitting, and of course, taking hits, his body just couldn’t produce what low production he had in previous seasons. Another factor was probably that the Leafs management didn’t want him anymore. After the lockout in 2005, the face of the game changed from a more defensive game, to one of more offence, more goals, more penalty calls. And the leafs just couldn’t afford to rack up on penalties, which is what Domi was good at. 3rd in career penalty minutes with 3515 minutes, Domi racked up a good chunk of penalties fighting the biggest and baddest fighters in the NHL, including many bouts with Bob Probert who looked twice his size.

The management at the Toronto Maple Leafs may not have wanted him, but surely his fans did as well as his teamates. He will be missed. I’m glad however, that he’s not going over to another team, and that he retired at Toronto. It just wouldn’t be right for him to play for another team. And I’m also glad to see him join the Analyst team at TSN. I’m hoping he’s as confrontational and has a ‘tell em like it is’ Don Cherry type personality on camera, as he did on the ice. Fare well Domi…

as you can see, i changed up the theme a bit… let me know what you think of it… the header picture is actually one of my own. its a picture of a building i took downtown in front of … front street… here’s the actual picture <link>…

in other news… hmmm, actually there is no other news… i’ll leave it at that for now. adios amigos.

oh wait, there is some news… allow me to be the umpteenth person to remind you that it is 9/11 today…

get ready folks… its gonna be an interesting fall lineup!… here’s what’s coming:

‘survivor‘ (CBS, premieres thursday september 14th, 2006) - always making things interesting… this time its race versus race… black versus white versus chinese versus hispanic!… 5 on each team to begin with at least, and probably merge after a few tribal councils… hopefully tension gets high on ‘cook island’… the more tension you get, the better the show.. haha.

‘amazing race‘ (CBS, premieres september 17th, 2006) - man, this is one show i’m not going to miss… for the first time ever, they have an indian couple on.. and a muslim team too!… should be interesting as always…

‘Lost‘ (ABC, premieres wednesday october 4th, 2006) - if you watched the season finale last season… let me rephrase that… if you watched the last 2 minutes of the season finale, you are probably dying to watch the season premiere as much as i am!… don’t want to spoil it for noone, but wow, i wonder if they’ll have to change the name of the show.

some new and interesting shows this season:

‘heroes‘ (NBC, premieres september 25th, 2006) - basically a show about super heroes… nice concept, although i think they are banking on the whole ’smallville’ idea… teenaged super heroes that is. i never really got into smallville, but this seems like an ‘xmen’ type of show. might be good…

‘Smith‘ (CBS, premieres wednesday september 19th, 2006) - looks interesting also, starring Ray Liotta, about a bunch of criminals performing robberies and i guess getting away with it too… kind of reminds me of one of my favourite movies, ‘Heat’.

upcoming winter season:

‘apprentice‘ (NBC) - going to be a bit different this time, as its not shooting in NYC anymore. off to southern california the latest apprentii’s (to steal a word from randal’s vocab) are headed. should be something different, something to watch for i guess, because NYC was getting a bit boring…

‘24‘ (Fox) - no words to describe this show… except AWESOME!… can’t wait till january

ok, i don’t know if any of you watch ‘big brother’, the latest season being ‘big brother 7: all-stars’… but yesterday seemed like everything was so freakin’ rehearsed, that it totally didn’t look like a ‘reality’ tv show whatsoever!… admittedly, i haven’t been keeping up with the show, and never watched the previous seasons, but i did watch the last, i’d say 6 or 7 episodes and got a jist of what the heck is going on…

so here’s the deal… basically, there’s these two guys that collude with one another, and at the same time, are making these two other girls believe that they are a part of their inside group called ‘chill town’… its quite believable too, that these girls are falling for this trap… i mean, its been going on for the last few episodes now, and everytime you watch these two guys in action, you’re like ‘wow, how stupid can these two girls be’… because even on camera, the girls were saying how ‘vulnerable’ they felt, and how they want to get rid of eachother and would rather side with the guys… except, today, out of complete nowhere-ness, these two girls do a complete reversal and turn on the guys, after say, 15 minutes of discussion… totally unexpected… so unbelievably unexpected that i’d have to say it was all fake… i’m thinking ‘big brother’ isn’t a reality show at all, its just a bunch of people following some script… ie. actors… i’m kinda glad i didn’t waste my time watching that all season…

i’m just waiting now for the real reality shows to start up again… some interesting shows this season… some old, some new… should be good!

I was quite surprised with how Iran has handled itself in the last few months, and quite recently when the deadline passed today to halt uranium enrichment. In defiance to UN/US demands, the Iranian president was quoted as saying “The Iranian nation will never abandon its obvious right to peaceful nuclear technology” and also, that the west “should know the Iranian nation will not yield to pressure and not accept any violation of its rights.”

At first I thought it was only rhetoric coming from the Islamic republic in response to Whitehouse statements made about their nuclear ambitions. Now I’m beginning to realize that there is some truth to what President Ahmedinejad is saying. This isn’t simply rhetoric, its the real thing. These guys aren’t going to back down any time soon. What does the US think about that? Well they are of the thinking that they already let one hostile country obtain the nuclear know-how (namely, North Korea) and now controlling them is harder than ever. They can’t just go into N. Korea and bomb the crap out of them because N. Korea now has an “Ace” card which pretty much acts as a deterrent. Unlike Iraq which didn’t have one, and we all know what is going on there.

Iran says it must fulfill its own energy requirements. The US claims otherwise, thinking uranium enrichment in Iran will be used for nuclear bombs. So what will the US do in order to stop Iran from enriching Uranium and obtaining the same Ace card the North Koreans so proudly flaunt. I’m not sure myself, but I’m wondering if there is a possibility for another war, only this time against Iran? The US already has so many troops in the area and it wouldn’t be too hard to re-deploy them next door, I don’t think at least. Another option for them is to impose sanctions. Recall, however, that the US initially imposed sanctions on Iraq also, but they supposedly didn’t work and so the US invaded the country because of a fear of “WMDs”. So, now the ultimate question: Will history be repeating itself? As it stands, it doesn’t look like Iran is going to back down any time soon, bombs or no bombs, sanctions or no sanctions.

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“If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own. We have no other choice.” - Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, then Pakistani Foreign Minister, 1965

an email forward… i’m too lazy to forward it, so here it is… a few math solutions you may have used in your math courses at utm, york or ryerson…

so everyone pretty much knows that its important to have goals. we all have dreams of doing this or that, going here and there, becoming such and such. some of us realize our dreams and goals. other’s go through life without seeing any of their goals come to fruition. but here’s the real question and point of my post: do you think its more important to HAVE goals, then it is to realize them?

a little background on this topic. its something that came up while i was reading this book called ‘the Alchemist’ and one of the topics of discussion was this very question. the book itself is basically about a boy who sets off to pursue his dream of finding treasure in Egypt. along the way he meets different people, and realizes that each person he meets is helping him along the way in finding his treasure, or his Personal Legend, as the alchemists would say.

so back to the question: is it more important to have goals or dreams, then it is for them to come true? of course, the latter requires the former to be true in the first place. but what if you lived all your life, dreaming for one thing, hoping for it every waking moment. and then finally it comes true. what then? the boy in the book meets a muslim man who dreams of going to mecca for pilgrimage. finally when he is able to do so, he claims “I’m afraid that if my dream is realized, I’ll have no reason to go on living” and that its “the thought of Mecca that keeps [him] alive”. the man decides that its better to have this dream than for it to come true. the boy, on the other hand, is of a different philosophy. he wishes to complete his dream of finding his treasure and focusses on the realization of the dream, rather than the dream itself.

personally, i’d agree with the boy. i think if it came down to it, and i realized each of my dreams, i’d probably think of new ones. i’d establish newer goals in life and strive to achieve them. well, at least on paper (or the internet) i would. i had a goal of creating a photoblog on my own, using mysql and php (programming tools) and i did so. i have a few other goals which haven’t been realized yet and are work in progress, but they are there, and hopefully, god willing, i will realize those goals.

btw, i just finished the alchemist, and its truly a great and easy read. short and sweet, i think i finished it in 1 week, which is probably a record for me, hehe.