news

Though imperfect, The Associated Press is increasingly becoming one of the few U.S. media agencies that can be trusted for reliable news. After reading their thorough and objective report on the the South Ossetia conflict, I learned the following:

• Two areas of Georgia have been operating independently (though unrecognized internationally) since the early 90s: Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
• Georgia last week invaded South Ossetia without warning in an effort to retake the region, citing previous provocation from South Ossetian militants.
• Russia, out of nowhere, came to South Ossetia’s rescue, then starting invading other (unaffected) areas of Georgia without explanation or reason.
• President Bush criticized Russia for the “disproportionate” military response “outside of South Ossetia,” suggesting approval with Russian aide in affected areas, but disapproval with Russian aggression in unaffected areas, obviously.

Something smells fishy — seems like everyone, including Georgia, Russia, and maybe even the U.S. are more concerned with those ginormous oil pipes in the war-torn country than the security of little old South Ossetia.

UPDATE: For additional commentary, be sure to read  the comments on Digg surrounding this story. If American, you’ll uncontrollably laugh at how brutally honest some Diggers are, before blushing upon realizing how embarrassed you should be.

“You can find a link to the report on our website.”

That’s the same line every local TV news station in the nation uses to artificially inflate their website traffic. What they are really saying is: “We have no idea what we’re doing online, and our shortsighted logic tells us that we should funnel and horde all valuable web links on our site. But our website is so messy you won’t even be able to find the desired link.

“Furthermore, we’re pretentious and have no understanding that providing a courteous service to our audience (like saying, “For more information, visit WeLikeSharing.com”) is enough reason alone to keep them coming back — so we force the issue.”

I rarely if ever watch local news. But this sort of amateur move is enough to make me never want to watch again. Lame.

Thanks to Good Morning America, we now know that the popular Airborne cold remedy is nothing more than an “extraordinarily expensive Vitamin C delivery system.” A placebo.

The Alka-Seltzer-like mixture originally claimed to be the “miracle cold buster” that could “get rid of most colds in 1 hour.” The company has since watered down those claims, obviously to avoid further litigation.

(more…)

Sadie woke up early today. After getting up with her and dozing off on the couch, she unfortunately decided to turn on the Today Show on NBC. I don’t watch morning shows, and now I know why. The programming is pathetic — it’s like a prolonged advertisement filled with periodic non-news and weather updates every 10 minutes. Just horrible…

Which made me wonder: Will morning shows continue to air once the baby-boomer generation passes on? Who else is watching this dross?