Mass Media
Mass media has degenerated beyond the point of recognition. However, let us not romanticize the days of Ed Murrow, Bob Woodward, Vietnam protests and true investigative journalism. The trend of reduction and popularism started long ago – our situation today was probably inevitable. With more competition for people’s time, television has been forced to emulsify their broadcasts to sound bites and rhetorical questions. Arriving at a point where, “The no. 1 issue for voters this year, again, is bullshit”. Of course, what is mentioned above is not news to anyone reading this, nor is it a recent phenomenon.
In 1962, Newton Minnow, then chair of the FCC, gave an amazing speach entitled “Television is a vast wasteland.” Even 55 years ago, the trend of putting the bottom line before the truth was apparent. At what point do a sufficient number of people stand up and demand real news, real analysis and real dialogue?
As outlined in Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent”, media driven by advertisement will always be a self-censored entity. Newspapers will not print too many stories that run against the grain, simply because they need to retain their advertisement revenues. A fringe population knows what bullshit looks like, tastes like and smells like; but the general voting population are too busy with kids, work and life to care about things that are 3 degrees of separation from them. They want Britney.
The inflection point where the masses see the emperor naked will always arrive when the situation has worsened so considerably that it can no longer be ignored. The general apathy towards abuses of power by corporations and politicians is ignored by most people because We Have it Good, Real Good.
Anti-slavery crusader Frederick Douglass succinctly stated, “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.”
Though modern propaganda was born with Napoleon’s conquests and scientifically improved by the Nazis; our modern society of scientists and marketers that have put the nail in the proverbial coffin. Corporations know their interest lies with the satisfied client and so bookstores carry more liberal books than ever before with more negative analysis of Bush than ever thought possible, yet so little change.
With the availability of information, the illusion of discussion has been created. Yet, people “debate” between democrat and republican when they should argue between right and wrong. During the infamous appearance of John Stewart on the CNN show Crossfire, he ripped apart both hosts of Crossfire for their practice of duping the public into thinking that a real debate is occurring. In reality, the media argues over how to cook the steak and not whether the steak should be cooked at all.
The ultimate risk, as described by Aldous Huxley in “A Brave New World” is a semi-totalitarian system, where we suckle on the teat of the beast we have bred. As stated by Edward R Murrow: “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” We must not permit our opulence to cloud our judgment of what is good and worthwhile information.
Published on April 6, 2008Shocked into Action
A large part of the laziness can be attributed to cheap oil, free water and abundant natural resources. People and their economies change only when the price point forces them to. Oil at 100$ has led many Americans to look at their SUVs in a new light. However, it is going to take much more than fuel efficient SUVs to turn the situation around.
Green technology may be a large part of the solution to America’s current economic woes. An interesting article in Harper’s outlined the possibility of America pumping tons of cash into green tech to boost the economy to compensate for the recent collapse of the housing bubble. Massive investment in clean technology would allow America to create knowledge intensive jobs and reduce their dependance on foreign oil.
Bus Optimization
Why are so many huge buses half-full.
http://www.eem.ca/index.php/blog/68-half-full-or-half-empty-bus
Published on March 13, 2008Online newspaper design (francais and english)
Here are some screen-shots of some English and French newspapers/news sites. In general, the English sites are less cluttered and easier to read. Despite the excellent content on sites like Courrier International, I have a difficult time finding and enjoying the content.
Note 1: Placing a banner on the top part of the screen eats up a lot of “first view” content space (4/5 french sites and 2.5/5 english ones do) . This obviously appeals to advertisers, but the real risk is that I miss an interesting story and leave the site. People do not tend to scroll down sites.
If the first thing I see is advertisement, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Does the print version of these papers place ads on the top part of the paper? I don’t think so. So why would you do it online?
I want to calculate the print to advertisement ratio on these sites, the amount of black ink to colour ink, and create a contrast-ratio map of the sites. Anyone know how to do this quickly?
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter
A footnote: We paid the IRS tax of $1.2 billion on our PetroChina gain. This sum paid all costs of the U.S. government – defense, social security, you name it – for about four hours.
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The best anecdote I’ve heard during the current presidential campaign came from Mitt Romney, who asked his wife, Ann, “When we were young, did you ever in your wildest dreams think I might be president?” To which she replied, “Honey, you weren’t in my wildest dreams.”
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You may recall a 2003 Silicon Valley bumper sticker that implored, “Please, God, Just One More Bubble.” Unfortunately, this wish was promptly granted, as just about all Americans came to believe that house prices would forever rise. That conviction made a borrower’s income and cash equity seem unimportant to lenders, who shoveled out money, confident that HPA – house price appreciation – would cure all problems. Today, our country is experiencing widespread pain because of that erroneous belief. As house prices fall, a huge amount of financial folly is being exposed. You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out – and what we are witnessing at some of our largest financial institutions is an ugly sight.
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You will recall that in our catastrophe insurance business, we are always ready to trade increased volatility in reported earnings in the short run for greater gains in net worth in the long run. That is our philosophy in derivatives as well.
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(I’ve reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death – abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term “thinking outside the box.”).
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Then, after a short recess, Charlie and I will convene the annual meeting at 3:15. If you decide to leave during the day’s question periods, please do so while Charlie is talking.
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Stop by the NetJets booth at the Qwest to learn about viewing these planes. Come to Omaha by bus; leave in your new plane. And take all the hair gel and scissors that you wish on board with you.