The music industry is up in arms again. This time they have learned that their music was being used to torture prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanimo Bay. As bad as that may “sound”, it gets worse – the industry seems less concerned over the alleged terrorists’ human rights and more intent on getting royalties from the government for every time a song was used.
Tag Archive: Awards
Jan 01
My “Marie Antoinette on Steroids” award goes to… Arnold Schwarzenegger
The California Governor announces a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County, where a wildfire has destroyed 100 homes, several mansions among them, in a celebrity enclave for the rich and famous. Meanwhile, back in the real world, Californian home foreclosure activity for the previous month of October was pegged at 56,954 properties. That total was down from a peak of more than 100,000 in August, but was still up 13 percent from October 2007.
Jan 01
My “When Good News Turns Bad” award goes to… Hormel Foods Corporation
As 2008 south of the border came to a close amidst a tsunami of bankruptcies, property foreclosures and factory layoffs, one Austin, Minnesota plant reported that it would be adding additional shifts and operating around the clock in order to keep up with customer demand. Alas, the company in question is Hormel Foods Corporation, the makers of Spam, that shiny tin of pig renderings that is emblematic of hard-times.
Jan 01
Joke of the Year 2008
Q: What is the difference between politicians and children?
A: Children will eventually grow up.
Jan 01
Story of the Year for 2007
Chinese missile test prompts concerns
China opened the year with a very big bang on January 11, when they fired a ballistic missile that blasted one of their old weather satellites out of orbit more than 800 kilometers above the Earth. The Chinese satellite was about the same distance from Earth as U.S. spy satellites. The U.S. has been able to knock out satellites with missiles since the mid-1980s. The only U.S. test was conducted on Oct. 13, 1985. Later that year, the U.S. government implemented a ban on testing anti-satellite weapons.
Jan 01
Feel Good Story of the Year 2007
MacLean Magazine’s Warren Buffet Interview by KENNETH WHYTE | October 15, 2007 | http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20071015_110163_110163&source=srch
Warren Buffet talks about his announcement in 2006 that he would give away 85 per cent of his roughly $50-billion fortune to charities. In a year that was rife with stories that ranged between the bizarre, irrelevant and/or darker side of the people and the news, this one really stands out as one of the few pick-me-up pieces that I can remember. The following excerpt is one of his nuggets of wisdom from that interview that we should all aspire to live by (even though some of us might not have a couple billion dollars burning a hole in our pockets):
K.W.: “You decided you didn’t want to leave it all to your kids. You have a line about that?”
W.B.: “Yeah, I want to leave them enough so they can do anything but not enough so they can do nothing.”
Jan 01
Person of the Year 2007
Canadian New Democrat MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis.
She proposed a private member’s bill that would effectively ban fees at automated teller machines in Canada. Of course the banks are claiming that, “Without this competitive pricing flexibility, it is unlikely that we would be able to continue to maintain a network of 4,000 plus ATMs – innovation and access would suffer and costs to consumers would rise”
In a related Story: The global consulting firm Deloitte reports that by 2010 banks will spend almost one-third of their collective IT Budget (which currently stands at $44 Billion – offshore).
Jan 01
Innovation of the Year 2007
Neurofeedback helmets for use with the various mainstream game consoles.
Smartbrain Technologies, Emotiv Systems and NeuroSky are three young companies in a vanguard that is adapting a relatively old concept to transport the measurement of brain waves (neurofeedback) from the medical sphere into the realm of computer games. The technology is already getting a lot of attention from the Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) community (and that wholly accidental pun/oxymoron speaks volumes) as well as memory clinics for executives and seniors. Lynda Thompson, director of the ADD Centre and Biofeedback Institute in Mississauga, Ont. explains that children have been told to “pay attention” their entire lives without actually knowing what that means. In one study she conducted using neurofeedback on 111 ADD subjects, their IQ’s climbed an average of 12 points, poor readers advanced four grade levels and, most importantly, 79% of the Ritalin users stopped medication completely. Bottom line: Anything that educates the kids and lets them have fun in the process while, at the same time, reducing dependency on drugs can’t be bad and deserves my vote for innovation of the year.
Jan 01
Conspiracy of the Year 2007
None come to mind.
…but just because I am not as paranoid as I used to be, that doesn’t mean they are not still out to get me. It might also be attributed to the fact that we are dealing with a stupider breed of conspirators that are prone to getting caught while their hands are still in the cookie jars.