Let's de-commercialize childhood

With their undeveloped brains, our kids do not stand a chance against commercial advertising that is seductively aimed at them by very clever adults with millions of dollars at their disposal.

The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood is a great idea whose time has come. As they say, we must de-commercialize childhood.  

As marketing to children intensifies, what can society do?

By Diane Levin and Christina Asquith

April 27, 2013 | Aljazeera

URL: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/04/2013425113926575488.html

Guns and the media-mental illness red herring

The NRA and the Big Gun lobby are making the following fallacious argument right now in opposing restrictions on large magazines and semi-automatic assault weapons:

1) Mental illness, violent TV/movies, video games, etc. are more to blame than guns for gun violence.

2) These "causes" are really hard to address, for a variety of practical and legal-constitutional reasons. 

3) Since we can't do much about these causes, we shouldn't do anything about guns themselves.

This argument is absurd. It is basically saying, "Since we can't control everything, we can control nothing." Wrong. We can control legally the sale of guns and ammo. All Congress has to do is act.

No, change won't happen overnight. But if we stick to our guns (pardon the pun) and stop going back and forth on gun control every 10 years, then eventually we will see results. 

Hard to classify

OK, I admit it, I'm struggling with how to label this story.... Zombie preppers gone wild? Life imitating art? Accessible firearms escalate stupid argument to a life-and-death struggle? Rednecks are nuts?  

But here's the weirdest part: after he shot her in the back, the redneck boyfriend drove his girlfriend to the hospital for treatment. Like, he made his point, he shot her, that proves he's right and she's wrong and all the rest is bygones. He's now charged with attempted second-degree murder.  

Anyhoo... is season 3 of The Walking Dead the best ever or what?  Michonne should have finished off the Governor when she had the chance, am I right?  I sure hope he gets what's coming to him!....

"So you guys call walkers 'biters,' huh?"

Man Shoots Girlfriend in the Back for Not Taking the Possibility of a Zombie Apocalypse Seriously

By Neetzan Zimmerman

December 5, 2012 | Gawker

URL: http://gawker.com/5965883/man-shoots-girlfriend-in-the-back-for-not-taking-the-possibility-of-a-zombie-apocalypse-seriously

Any advert creates 'internal battle' in your brain

The "self-control region [of the brain] is in a tug of war with the parts of the brain affected by ads."

This info raises yet more doubts about just how free is humans' free will. Second, it makes me think of the $ hundreds of millions in political campaign spending every year, most of which goes towards TV commercials. Are we really making informed political choices, or just responding to non-conscious cues?

The good news is that every time you think critically about how ads work, you create new patterns in your brain that strengthen the self-control regions. Unfortunately, that's also why marketers spend $17 billion a year targeting ads at children, who have not yet developed the capacity and experience for critical thinking. Companies are hoping they can hard-wire those buying tastes and habits in children at a tender age so they'll continue on into adulthood.

This Is Your Brain On Ads: An Internal 'Battle'

By Maya Cueva

June 15, 2011 | All Things Considered on NPR

URL: http://www.npr.org/137175622

What do Egypt and U.S. have in common?

What media outlet do both autocratic Egypt and the freedom-loving U.S. try to shut down?

I'll give you a hint: it starts with an 'Al-' and ends with a '-zeera.'


Al Jazeera Becomes Chief Media Target Of Egyptian Government
By Ryan Lucas
February 10, 2011 Huffington Post

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/10/al-jazeera-becomes-chief-_n_821216.html

Al Jazeera English Blacked Out Across Most Of U.S. [UPDATED]
By Ryan Grim
February 4, 2011 Huffington Post

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/30/al-jazeera-english-us_n_816030.html

The real CSI aint smart or cool

Turn off the flashlight and turn on a light bulb, for crying out loud!

Finally, facts to validate my suspicions! I really don't like all those shows like CSI, Bones, etc. First, because they're awfully morbid. To my wife, a fan of all of them, I call these shows, collectively, "Corpses," because that's pretty much how every episode begins, with some grisly murder and how the corpse is discovered.

My second beef with these shows is how much freaking time and resources all these super-genius, super-cool, beautiful people spend investigating every murder. I realize it's TV, but... come on! We've all seen cops. They're not like that. I don't care what city or country you live in, they're all pretty much the same. And no police dept. has the budget to devote a crack team of 5-10 beautiful genius's time solving every murder. Moreover, I'm sure real-life CSI types are nerds who don't haunt dim, ultra-high-tech crime labs sporting Armani, spiky hair and tons of attitude as they do boring forensic work. "Turn a light on, for crapsakes!" I want to shout at the tube.

One of my favorite parts of these shows to hate is when they have to show some actual forensic work: they turn this otherwise BO-ring science stuff into a techno-music montage scene with lots of flash editing so that us slobs on the couch don't fall asleep watching stuff like spinning blood centrifuges.

Anyway, like I said, it's always nice to have my pop-culture biases validated by investigative journalists. Give me Quincy M.E. any day!

Here's the good news: in real life, if you're a murderer, there's a real good chance you'll get away with it. You don't have to commit the perfect crime just to outsmart the quirky cop who loves bugs or the sullen redhead who won't take off his sunglasses. The bad news is, if you're innocent, you might get stuck with the rap.


The Real CSI: How America's Patchwork System of Death Investigations Puts the Living At Risk
An examination of the nation's 2,300 coroner and medical examiner offices reveals a troubled system that literally buries its mistakes.

By A.C. Thompson and Mosi Secret and Lowell Bergman and Sandra Bartlett
February 2, 2011 Alternet

URL: http://www.alternet.org/investigations/149769/the_real_csi:_how_america

Mummified: Could this be you?

Or almost you?

Myself, I'm guilty of it, no question.

According to the U.S. Labor Dept., the average American watches 2.6 hours of TV a day, compared to 45 minutes per day socializing and visiting with friends. (BTW, you never see the friends on Friends watching TV, do you? Who would watch them do that?)

A healthy civil society starts with getting our butts off the sofa and out of the house -- and not just to shop!

Mummified body found in front of blaring TV

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Police called to a Long Island man's house discovered the mummified remains of the resident, dead for more than a year, sitting in front of a blaring television set.

The 70-year-old Hampton Bays, New York, resident, identified as Vincenzo Ricardo, appeared to have died of natural causes. Police said on Saturday his body was discovered on Thursday when they went to the house to investigate a report of a burst water pipe.

"You could see his face. He still had hair on his head," Newsday quoted morgue assistant Jeff Bacchus as saying. The home's low humidity had preserved the body.

Officials could not explain why the electricity had not been turned off, considering Ricardo had not been heard from since December 2005.

Neighbors said when they had not seen Ricardo, who was diabetic and had been blind for years, they assumed he was in the hospital or a long-term care facility.