The NYTimes (registration required) reports that Harry Simeone, best known for his choral arrangement of "Little Drummer Boy," has died.
I had always supposed "Harry Simeone" was a transparently obvious pseudonym and now I learn, too late, he was a real person.
Friday, February 25, 2005
Thursday, February 24, 2005
A bomber is a bomber is a bomber, right?
Wonkette on a Media Matters report that Fox News insists on substituting the term "homicide bomber" for "suicide bomber" in wire stories:
Of course, Fox deserves the term "homicide bomber," which is obscure, redundant, and misleading--not to mention that Fox's hasty adoption of the term after Ari Fleischer and other White House officials started using it a few years ago makes them look like administration stooges. Which they probably also deserve.
Media watchdogs are all foamed up over Fox News making changes to AP stories and story subjects' quotes. Oh c'mon, everyone's got a house style -- just because Fox changes 'suicide bomber' to 'homicide bomber,' no matter what Hillary Clinton or anyone else might have actually said, doesn't mean they're influencing the news or anything.This isn't exactly news--Fox has been using the term for some time now and it's only to be expected that Fox edits wire reports to suit their own style. Changing quotes is clearly wrong, though.
Of course, Fox deserves the term "homicide bomber," which is obscure, redundant, and misleading--not to mention that Fox's hasty adoption of the term after Ari Fleischer and other White House officials started using it a few years ago makes them look like administration stooges. Which they probably also deserve.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Fox HD blocking fast forwards?
PVRblog reports here that some users of Comcast's HD DVRs have been unable to fast-forward through commercials on "American Idol" or "24" on Fox's HD channel.
This might be just a glitch that can be resolved by resetting the DVR, but it's weird that there aren't comparable reports of problems with HD feeds from other networks.
(Via Reality Blurred)
This might be just a glitch that can be resolved by resetting the DVR, but it's weird that there aren't comparable reports of problems with HD feeds from other networks.
(Via Reality Blurred)
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Belated "Wife Swap" post
Ron and I like to watch ABC's "Wife Swap," in which participants trade places with counterparts from what are generally radically different backgrounds. Usually the show is exploitive but harmless: we see super-permissive parents get switched into excessively strict, structured households, that kind of thing.
Last week's episode was less benign than usual, placing lesbian mom Kristine in the home of strait-laced, conservative Christian mom Kris, and vice versa.
Kristine appeared to get on reasonably well with Kris's husband Brian, but the same couldn't be said of Kris's relationship with Kristine's partner Nicki. In an early segment of the program, Kris disparaged Kristine and Nicki's partnership, impugned their motivation for wanting to be legally married, and asked Nicki why she couldn't just pretend not to be lesbian. Really. No kidding.
Things went further downhill during the couples' meeting at the end of the show. Kris said that she feared Kristine would molest her daughter--I wonder if she'd have suggested that a straight woman might molest her teenaged sons?--and that Kristine and Nicki were depraved. This reduced Kristine to tears, as you might expect. (I can respect a polite expression of religious objections, but Kris's inflammatory, outrageous statements only deserve an indignant "How DARE you?!" )
But while I'm angry at the exploitation of both couples, I can't understand why anyone ever participates in these shows. Really, I'm totally baffled. Can anyone possibly expect any good to come from reality TV, especially if there's no compensation for the participants?
Last week's episode was less benign than usual, placing lesbian mom Kristine in the home of strait-laced, conservative Christian mom Kris, and vice versa.
Kristine appeared to get on reasonably well with Kris's husband Brian, but the same couldn't be said of Kris's relationship with Kristine's partner Nicki. In an early segment of the program, Kris disparaged Kristine and Nicki's partnership, impugned their motivation for wanting to be legally married, and asked Nicki why she couldn't just pretend not to be lesbian. Really. No kidding.
Things went further downhill during the couples' meeting at the end of the show. Kris said that she feared Kristine would molest her daughter--I wonder if she'd have suggested that a straight woman might molest her teenaged sons?--and that Kristine and Nicki were depraved. This reduced Kristine to tears, as you might expect. (I can respect a polite expression of religious objections, but Kris's inflammatory, outrageous statements only deserve an indignant "How DARE you?!" )
But while I'm angry at the exploitation of both couples, I can't understand why anyone ever participates in these shows. Really, I'm totally baffled. Can anyone possibly expect any good to come from reality TV, especially if there's no compensation for the participants?
Friday, February 04, 2005
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Does Not Compute
Aha, I should have been more suspicious; the purported home computer I linked to yesterday is a fake. Snopes.com is everybody's friend.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Forward, into the Past!
What "fifty years from now" looked like fifty years ago, via Anton Sherwood.
I'm impressed by the wildly optimistic statement in the caption, "With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use."
I'm impressed by the wildly optimistic statement in the caption, "With teletype interface and the Fortran language, the computer will be easy to use."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)