Oh, but don't you believe them: "The Best in Local News"

I’m home on spring break for the week. Television is a little foreign to me by now, and it’s just weird to watch what I used to regard as normal. News 40 just played a set of promos about how they were the first on the scene and covered the whole story. The first big story? A fire. A big fire. News 40 got there fast and made sure you got to see every bit of this “breaking news”.

The building was burning down. To whom is this so important? To the people inside, surely; they obviouly figured it out without the media’s help. The fire department needed to know, but I certainly hope they got a ring before the local news. Who else? People who want to avoid traffic, maybe? I can’t think of anyone else. I’ll read about it in the paper tomorrow. Heck, I’ll hear about it at 11, when the news is scheduled to be on. Why do I care that it’s burning down right now if it has no immediate effect on me and I can’t do a thing about it?

First, because we’re sick voyeurs. We just like watching a house burn down. Ok, I don’t, myself, but I know that’s why most people care. It’s just like a car chase. That’s not news. That’s Fear Factor.

Second, News 40 gets a sweet 30 second promo. It’s great. They get to say, “We were there first, we covered the whole thing, and we are the best.” I’d bet most people don’t stop to think, “Would I really care? Do I need them to be there first and tell me every petty detail twenty times to stretch out the story until it stops ‘breaking’?”

Actually, it turns out that there’s a point at which even important breaking news goes on too long for America’s goldfish-like attention span. Already, Iraq is simply a fact of life to us.

That’s just the way it is…Some things will never change…

How to Slashdot yourself in the foot...

How silly of me not to think of Coral. *sigh*

The PodLink page is back down. The download link has been Coralized, though, so whenever it comes back up, it should at least stick around for longer. From now on, use the Coralized URL to get to the page. It’ll be moved to SourceForge soon anyhow. I hope.

PodLink: The Freedom to Wash Your Hands Again

PodLink is finally available. It’s taken me far to long to put this all up. The host may have to change, so this site should be the definitive place to go to find it. I’ll put the link in a more permanent place soon, like the sidebar.

For now, enjoy! Please send feedback to podnews@gmail.com, or leave a comment here.

Note: There are some bandwidth problems right now. If the site is down, it should come back soon. Unfortunately, “soon” means ~12 hours. I’m looking into better (free) hosting. If you can give me a hand, I’d really appreciate it (the file is only about 10MB). Leave a comment here or email me. Thanks!

Update (3/23, 1:47pm): PodLink is now a pending project on SourceForge. This may take a couple of days to complete. Until then, best of luck catching some bandwidth via the link above.

Hot Theological Action!!

It’s become instinct now: whenever I see or hear or think of a word I’m not sure I know the full meaning of, I google it. It’s a reflex. Well, this time I happened to look up “apologist”. I found what I was looking for—and a little more:

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Hot!

Elroy Jetson

Adam Curry just summed up a huge part of why podcasting (as a technology) is just so amazing:

So, in closing, I'd just like to say that [pause] isn't it amazing that I'm sitting here in an airport in a McDonalds talking into a piece of plastic [pause] which is being broadcast to all of you. Elroy Jetson, signing off.

*geeky giddy giggle*

RIAA: The Headlines

The front page of the Recording Industry Association of America's website has a "latest news" section. Allow me to quote the headlines:

• Copyright Infringement Lawsuits Brought Against 753 Additional Illegal File Sharers
• RIAA Submits Report To Federal Government Outlining Piracy Problems In More Than 60 Countries
• RIAA And Other Intellectual Property Groups Seek World Trade Organization Help In Cracking Down On Piracy In China
• Double Diamonds Jump Start 2005
• Motion Picture And Music Companies File Brief For U.S. Supreme Court Review Of Grokster, Morpheus Case
• New Round of Lawsuits Against 717 Illegal File Sharers Includes Continued Focus On University Network Users Who Illegally Download Music
• Justice Department’s Piracy Operation Against Criminal P2P Network Operators Yield Two Guilty Pleas

"Gee, Bob, just I don't know why more people don't love us here at the RIAA. Was it something we said?"