Current Affairs « The Ramblings of An Eternal Student of Life

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Current Affairs ... Foreign Relations/World Affairs ...

I like to get my news while driving in my car. So, I make use of good old fashioned AM radio. I have my pre-set buttons tuned to two different commercial newsradio stations (unfortunately, both CBS affiliates), NPR, Bloomberg radio (focusing on financial and economic topics), and a local New Jersey “oldies” station (need to hear some music now and then). But I have one more pre-set button, and I have been searching for the past few months for a worth station to lock-in on. The other day, I stumbled across something quite interesting – AM 1430, the Voice of Russia. Yes, Russia, Vladimir Putin’s Russia; once our mortal enemy and still not always our friend. Why does Russia run a newsradio station in the New York area (and also one in Washington DC)? I’m not 100% sure, but I’m glad that it does.

Ted Koppel wrote an article last November summing up the current status of American broadcast news media, in contrast to how it was in the time of Walter Cronkite and Huntley-Brinkley. Once upon a time, the big TV and radio networks provided high-quality, mostly unbiased news shows as a public service. They did not expect to make a profit on the news; they ran commercials during newscasts, but generally did not during “live coverage” events like the Apollo moon flights or reports on the Cuban missile crisis.

Nonetheless, the big corporate broadcasters spent a lot of money on news coverage back then, given that the federal government tightly regulated the airwaves and imposed a “public service” requirement and a “fairness doctrine” in return for broadcasting bandwidth. CBS, NBC, Westinghouse radio, etc. largely fulfilled this “service” requirement by providing very high quality news journalism. In return, they could put on whatever junk that would sell as much soap as possible during the remaining 21 to 22 hours each day (e.g., corny sitcoms).

Today, things have changed. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 4:20 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Thursday, March 10, 2011

◊ Keeper of the Flame — India?

Current Affairs ... Foreign Relations/World Affairs ...

If you had to predict the major geopolitical trends for the rest of the 21st Century, the surest bet would be China’s rise to global empire-hood, and America’s decline from it. The major implication from such a view is that the Greek – Roman – Anglican – American heritage of personal freedom, human rights and representative democratic governance has finally run out of steam. Democracy, freedom and constitutions of and by the people were not the “light of humankind” after all; the sun seems to be setting on those ideals after 2,500 years of light (they didn’t call it en-light-tenment for nothing). The Chinese are setting an example for the rest of the developing world: that the better way to growth, prosperity and sustainability rests in a complex mix of personal economic incentive and collective “order-keeping”, combined with deference to authority (and perhaps even a desire for it). It’s all very Confucian, so I’ve read (despite the fact that my own readings of Master Confucians seem rather benign and even edifying).

OK to most of that, but before we write the eulogy for the Anglo-American ideal, we have to ask if there exists a people on the ascent who might pick up the torch presently in America’s faltering hands. I believe there is — India. Despite India’s relatively exotic history and cultural heritage, and despite its vigor to free itself from British domination in the 19th and early 20th centuries, there is evidence that India values the Anglo socio-political philosophies and intends to protect and promote them in the “brown-skin world” of the future. I just read an article in Forbes about India as a growing world power, and there was in incredible quote from an Indian scholar based at UCLA, Deepak Lal. Professor Lal said: “It is in India’s long term interest to recognize that the continuance of its liberal democratic open economy also requires it to support and, if necessary, take over the imperial burden from the U.S.”

India still has a way to go until it truly has the economic and military power to take on an “imperial burden”. It still needs » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 10:32 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, February 20, 2011

◊ Watson Beats Humanity – Yawn (for now)

Current Affairs ... Society ...

OK, so IBM has pulled off another “machine-trounces-human brain” stunt. Yes, I’m talking about Watson’s resounding triumph against two human trivia experts on Jeopardy this past week. This follows the “Deep Blue” chess matches back in 1996 and ’97, when an IBM chess-playing computer twice bet Gary Kasparov, arguably the best human chess player on the planet. (In 2003, Kasparov fought Deep Junior, a Deep Blue-inspired program able to run on a personal computer, to a tie).

Those IBM programmers and hardware designers are darn good, obviously. However, I admire IBM’s marketing division even more. Watson was a huge advertisement for IBM’s ability to provide customized artificial intelligence to the business community (they could not compete with Dell and Apple on the household computing market, though).

What Watson is: Watson is a prime example of customized artificial intelligence. Watson was built » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 8:51 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Monday, February 14, 2011

◊ Important Article from Down Under

Current Affairs ... Foreign Relations/World Affairs ... History ...

I ran across this article today in “The Australian”, entitled “Why the West is on the Wane” by Michael Wesley. I highly recommend it! Back when I was a kid, the world was a battleground between two systems: our western mix of democracy, liberty, capitalism and open markets (with a twist of government regulation), versus the Communist world with its powerful doctrinal apparatus and a state institution that planned out and commanded as much as possible about economic, political and personal life. We all had faith that the west would win, but figured that the final victory would happen sometime well after the turn of the 21st Century.

So it was quite a surprise that the battle suddenly ended around 1990, with Communism the clear loser. Our system had clearly been vindicated, and it was just a question of mopping up until the whole world was a capitalist democracy. Well, who would have guessed that 20 years later it would become apparent that the sun is also setting on the West.

This is one of the most insightful articles on that topic that I’ve read. And who would be better poised to reflect on it than a commentator from Australia, » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:23 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, February 6, 2011

◊ The Radiolab-ization of NOVA

Current Affairs ... Science ...

I went over to the Radiolab web site not long ago as to listen to a few recent editions (since Radiolab is on the radio at odd times). About a year ago, I posted a review here about the Radiolab experience – a combination of brilliance and annoying presentation (too much time spent chuckling to jokes and puns that aren’t shared with the listener). The recent stuff is about the same; except that some of it lacks the quality science reporting that made Radiolab worth putting up with.

One short Radiolab piece focused on startling coincidences in people’s lives. And that was about it, other than a quasi-philosophical rumination based on an old Warner Bros cartoon (coyote versus roadrunner) as to whether you would prefer the universe to be against you or to totally ignore you. Maybe this was a hint that our minds have a propensity to make too much of our coincidences, and that coincidences don’t prove that the universe has a “meta-awareness” of us, that determines our luck and lot in life. But it this was left hanging, and no experts were brought out to talk about probabilities of life events or genetic propensities in our brains to seek patterns and trends, even when there are none. So,we get all of the Radiolab smarminess, but none of the hard scientific content. Radiolab-lite; oh, just what we need.

I regularly watch PBS’s Nova scienceNOW, a Radiolab-style version of the classic NOVA show hosted by astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson. And to be honest, Nova scienceNOW is getting more and more annoying too, in the Radiolab tradition. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 2:36 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, February 5, 2011

◊ Megaphone Mark in Cairo

Current Affairs ... History ...

The big national media machines (CBS, NY Times, Washington Post, NPR, etc.) and their staff seem quite excited about the recent uprisings in Egypt, giving them much air time and article space. This is quite similar to what happened a year ago when the masses took to the streets (unsuccessfully) in Iran. And there were more well-covered uprisings before that, including the various color-revolutions and velvet revolutions in eastern Europe in the 1990s and early 00s. Oh, and don’t forget Tienanmen Square in China back in 1989; again, much news coverage, but ultimately not a major change in how daily life was to be carried out.

I believe this fascination has something to do with the fact that these news companies are now managed by Baby Boomers who took their university educations in the late 1960’s, when uprising and revolution seemed in the air. Upset about Vietnam War conscription, they imagined the start of a new order, including the overthrow of the governmental and corporate powers in Washington and New York.

However, the unwashed masses outside the major campuses failed to join them, and the end of the draft in the early 70s soon quieted the scene. But we still have the music and culture of those youthful times; » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 5:10 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, January 22, 2011

◊ Christian Cola Man Processing Claims

Current Affairs ... Food / Drink ...

In 1991 I was in my second year as a development officer with New Community Corporation in Newark, a non-profit community development agency. NCC had already started a number of small business ventures meant to create jobs for the low-income people of Newark, and maybe even leave NCC with a small profit to help start more businesses or build new housing or family centers. That was the theory, anyway; none of its businesses even returned a profit and almost all of them were closed by 2009. However, in the early 90s there was much hope in the air for NCC’s entrepreneurial outreach. It was going to be the next big wave in NCC’s efforts to lead the way to Newark’s revival.

As part of NCC’s entrepreneurial spirit, the leader and founder, Monsignor William Linder, immersed himself in the nitty-gritty of small business management. Aside from going to seminars and talking with vendors and business operators and bankers, he read as much as he could about the topic. His reading list included Inc. magazine, a business publication focusing on the little guys. Being new at the time, I was still one of his “trusted few” (he appreciated unquestioning loyalty, something I couldn’t do for long). So he would pass on some of his readings, including an occasional issue of Inc. This included the August, 1990 issue, which had as its cover feature a story about Rick Duhe and his failed attempt to make it as a soda-pop magnate, based on the spicy cola drink that he thought up. It was called Cajun Cola and it caught the attention of many newspaper writers and TV reporters around 1987 or so, as the next big thing; but it didn’t do well on the supermarket aisles and thus went the way of various other next-big-things that weren’t. (Interestingly, NCC’s business ventures would eventually go the same route, despite much initial media acclaim for Linder’s “social entrepreneurship”).

I read the article about Mr. Duhe and his adventure in soda capitalism and I was moved by it. It was well written and reflected the human / emotional side of what Mr. Duhe went through in thinking Cajun Cola up, in struggling to get it financed, produced and distributed, in receiving high praise from the food and culture critics, only to finally see his new-born business sink into a pit of debt and bankruptcy due to lack of sales. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 11:19 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

◊ A Canadian Viewpoint

Current Affairs ... Society ...

I’ve expressed my opinion in this blog as to where things in the USA seem to be headed; generally I think they’re heading south. I appreciate the fact that the USA is a great nation simply because people like me can express their political sentiments without fear of reprisal. There are still so many wonderful things about America. But increasingly, things seem to be going wrong. I had much more hope for America’s future back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, especially when the Vietnam war finally came to an end. But since then we’ve gone through a wide variety of crisis situations (e.g., energy shortages, terrorism, financial collapse, and once again, political assassination), and although things got better every time, the healing never seemed complete. It seems as though changes and problems are coming at us quicker and quicker every year, and are starting to overwhelm our national resolve. America once seemed to have unlimited resolve, but I’m not so sure about that anymore.

But that’s just me. I thought it might be interesting to consider another viewpoint, from a fellow who grew up in Canada. Back in 1984, in his early middle age (after completing med school and becoming a doctor), he moved to the USA and started a family here. Why? Here are some of his thoughts:

At the time, Canada’s economy was weaker and the country appeared to be on a socialist tack. Weather was a big factor also; I don’t like 5 months of winter, and the practice climate for MD’s was deteriorating. Ironically, this was about the time the US economy began to develop the imbalances that today have reached unsustainable proportions. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 12:05 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

◊ Catching Up On Flash Mobs

Current Affairs ... Society ...

Sometimes I just don’t notice what is going on in the world. I just found out about “flash mobs”, thanks to my friend Mary S. She sent me a link to a popular “flash event” that took place in a mall food court in Toronto, whereby a group of kids distributed around the food court did a rendition of Handel’s Messiah. I took a look afterwords on Wikipedia, only to find out that the flash mob idea has been around since 2004.

So let me get this straight. A group of people are organized and rehearse some dancing or singing or acting event, and then show up unexpectedly in a public area (on a street, in a park, at a mall, at a subway station, etc.) and do their thing for a few minutes. Members of the public who just happened to be milling about the area are surprised and often stop and watch, maybe even cheer or get involved somehow. But the most important thing is that someone is there recording all of this with a video camera. Because the critical thing about flash mobs is that they will be memorialized on You Tube or some other internet video platform, as to get thousands or maybe millions of viewings.

Maybe I’m just too old to appreciate all of this. It sounds a little silly to me » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 8:03 pm Read Comments (2) / Leave a Comment

Thursday, December 16, 2010

◊ Facebook, Fooey!

Current Affairs ... Society ...

Despite the fact that everyone is doing it, I’m staying away from Facebook and Twitter. There’s still something about the digital “social network” thing that gives me the creeps. Well, I just read an article on the British Guardian website telling me that I’m not the only one who feels that way. A writer named Oliver Burkeman says here that Facebook is a system of “quasi-friendship”. There’s a huge gap between what you read about a person on the Facebook “wall” or on Twitter, and with what their life is really like. The social network sites tell you about people’s successes, accomplishments and interesting experiences, but never discuss their doubts and fears. What you get on the Facebook wall is just what you’d expect from a wall, i.e. a two-dimensional poster image.

Well, my thanks to Mr. Burkeman for putting into words what bothers me about Facebook. I believe that the whole thing goes deeper than a lot of people just having fun with a web site; it seems to indicate the direction of the social tide in America and probably Britain and Europe too. This tide goes away from sharing and honest communications about our innermost selves. We are becoming more and more isolated by fears of vulnerability and exploitation, or by just “not having the time for it”.

Whatever the explanation, I don’t like what I see these days. There are probably plenty of “eternal students” and “nowhere men” on Facebook; but I don’t plan to be one of them!

◊ posted by Jim G @ 10:48 pm Read Comments (2) / Leave a Comment

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