Rampant consumerism

My earbuds broke yesterday. I was using some fairly good Phillips, but found the wires are fragile. The first thing you find out about buying an iPod is to toss the earbuds it comes with. They are worthless. Plug in a new pair and you will find yourself turning the volume down by at least half.

I did some research on the web and one set (Shure E4C, if you must know) always came up on everyone's list above the rest. So I decided to get those because I have a bit of extra money right now.

I realized this morning I just spent 1/2 of what I spent on the iPod itself...

Fake News

I am a news hound. I admit it. I enjoy politics, I read several online editions of daily newspapers. But I recently acquired a new clock for my bedroom. After years of waking up to Oregon Public Broadcasting, I decided that I could no longer begin the day with that sort of negative influence. The sound of the partisan bickering, the constant count of war dead was too much. I now have a clock that I plug my iPod into and I wake to my own music. I can turn on the radio when I want it after I am awake. But this is working to improve my mood first thing in the morning.

I stopped watching TV news, especially local news, a couple of years ago. I don't recall that it was a conscious decision. I just lost any interest. I couldn't check the facts as easily when watching news vs. reading it on the net. Local news was often just plain silly or insipid. It seldom had anything of interest.

Now I find that the local news in some places may even be fake. I have heard this story in two places (on NOW on PBS and on the Randi Rhodes Show), so I thought I'd better pass it along to you. The Center for Media and Democracy found that local newsrooms have been using video news releases: canned, scripted segments that are inserted into local shows and played as news. The local reporter or anchor simply does a voiceover with the prepared script so it sounds like they made the segment themselves. These things are nothing but infomercials, and the stations are not making any disclosures as to the source of the footage to their viewers. You don't need me to tell you why this is just wrong.

Like many people, I still prefer to get my fake news from Jon Stewart. He's funnier.