It’s an Interesting World: 3
It’s an Interesting World: 3 Video of the week: Fox News was greatly offended by Sesame Street’s depiction of fictitious news organization “Pox News”, somehow implying that Fox, it well, I don’t know, is an infectious disease? Sensitive much since the Obama Administration shut-out? On Romenesko, Sesame Street responds: “The whole segment was a parody [...]

It’s an Interesting World: 3

Video of the week: Fox News was greatly offended by Sesame Street’s depiction of fictitious news organization “Pox News”, somehow implying that Fox, it well, I don’t know, is an infectious disease? Sensitive much since the Obama Administration shut-out? On Romenesko, Sesame Street responds: “The whole segment was a parody of CNN (called GNN) or the ‘Grouch News Network.’ Children who watch Sesame Street know that Oscar the Grouch is a contrarian. He lives in a trash can and loves everything ‘yucky,’ and ‘disgustin.’ For a Grouch, ‘Trashy’ is high praise! Not only would child-viewers be unlikely to connect ‘Pox News’ to Fox News, in the context of this scene, they would understand the characters to be saying that ‘Pox News’ is better than ‘GNN.’”

Personally, I’m a HUGE fan of GNN!!

Speaking of contrarians and grouchy grouches:

… what started as passionate Jozi-lovers contributing to a list of awesome places to visit in response to a Guardian article a Mail & Guardian Online, degenerated into an argument about Cape Town being a racist city, black racism, white racism and insult-slinging amongst users who clearly missed the point. Gees! We can be such a nice, polite, optimistic country sometimes!

Quotes of the week:

“To do good work you have to love the work you do: don’t settle.” – Reuters colleague.

“Nichts ist so penetrant wie die Zukunft von gestern.” (Nothing is as penetrating as the future of yesterday)

“Verbotener Satz: jeder, in dem das wort “sachzwänge” vorkommt.” (Forbidden sentence: Every [sentence] in which the word “practical constraints” appears.) – Harald Staun, media editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Favourite find of the week (thoughI think I’m going to be ill): http://thisiswhyyourefat.com

mmm...homemade yumminess

Speaking of food, an excursion to Central Park last week to enjoy the fall colors and last remants of warm weather was accompanied by grilled chicken-pesto mayonaise-brie sandwiches, sparkling apple cider and cranberry walnut cake. Home cooked!! Seriously guys, what’s happening to me? I thought New York City was supposed to turn me into some kind of sophisticated, sexy Carrie Bradshaw type character, not a domesticated Jackie!! But hey, I can’t help it. Because damn, that cake was good!

It’s either climate change or New York’s freakishly odd weather changes, but last time this year it was pretty cold – damn near snowing. Last Sunday we enjoyed quite a pleasant temperature of 18 degrees with blasting sun, and it was rather disturbing. Should New York turn to weather control as the Chinese have?!

Controlling much? 16 million tons of snow fell on Beijing last week – the earliest snowfall in ages, mostly due to the fact that it was caused by silver iodide being sprayed over the clouds to enduce the snowfall and ease a drought. The BBC describes ‘cloud seeding’ and Beijing’s weather modification program. Some scientists are skeptical, however, as to whether the seeding works – or if the rain / snowfall is just spontaneous. I’m very weirded about by this. Though we constantly seek ways to mess with nature and the ‘natural’ ways of the world, I’m slightly freaked out about the long-term consequences of more sophsticated weather control.

And on a very sad note, this shows you that humanity is equal everywhere. This story really gave me the grills. A 15-year-old girl is assaulted and gang raped by several people in California outside a high school homecoming dance, a crowd gathers, up to twenty people watch, and no one calls 911 or calls one of the policemen PRESENT AT THE SCHOOL to chaperone the dance.

PeJ reports that the incident earns more coverage in the blogosphere than in print. Is the mainstream media too caught up in the tragedy of its possible demise than to devote more coverage to this hideous illustration of human cruelty?

How can the world be so beautiful, and so terrible, at exactly the same time?