Saviour of Celebrity Zombie Attacks!

I am quite glad that the Doc put this option on as our last blog! Perez Hilton is howls! But on a different note, he is a pioneer. Understanding the pseudo attempts of celebrity culture in North America, Perez in a comical manner is trying to break the Average Joe from what I would like to think of as "celebrity coma toast." Dominant groups within the media have somehow managed to feed upon the public's need of celebrity gossip and establish a celebrity hegemony in order to sell magazines.

Great celebrity stories are concocted, most fabricated, in order to sell more and more magazines and stories daily. It is people like Perez, with his unconformist pink hair and witty shananigans, who are needed in order to make the public aware of this ridiculous hegemonic ideology created by the media. So who cares if Britney Spears is at the bar and decides she wants to have a good time. If it were our neighbors doing such, we would feel obliged not to make a deal of it. So who cares if it is celebrities doing such. I blame these guys for it all!

Only through the discourse of such men as Perez Hilton will society cease to act as Celebrity Zombies and stop buying into the hegemonic ideologies of the celebrity culture!

Shocking news headines

The use of tazers as a means to protect officers is not always as entertaining as such. In recent news, a man in Vancouver was recently killed when police had used a tazer while trying to subdue the man. A video of the incident can be seen for one to make judgement upon.

Such a video has caused a global outcry over the incident. Authorities had even made an attempt to keep the release of this video from the public eye, but failed to do so. This was most likely an attempt to prevent media from placing a spin on the incident. With only 4 Corporate Media's within Canada, it would more than likely be the case with the video's release, the whole story would not have been told. The release of the video did much what police had predicted. Judgements were made as to the actions taken by police officers that resulted in the man's death. The public was outraged that the four policemen in the video went to such lengths to restrain a man, that onlookers described as scared and misunderstood. However, the Canadian Media, in their attempt to appease its viewers left out information that the man had been throwing objects, shouting at the police as they calmly approached the man. In a closer look at the video, it is apparent that Mr. Dziekanski was holding a foreign object in his hands when police had first tazered him, leading to the second and fatal tazering. But this was not dwelled upon by the Canadian Media like the results of the incident had been. In fact, if I were to be writing an article like such for a newspaper, chances are it would not be published, for it is would not be in synct with the views that they would wish to portray.
Please, do not assume that I believe the death of Mr. Dziekanski to be in vein or trivial, hopefully some good may come of it. It is clear that with 17 deaths over the last 5 years within Canada, that tazers are not the safest means for police to subdue a suspect. In light of such incidents, police should consider alternate means such as the next video displays. Minus the comical music, it is very well feasible that safer means for police to restrain suspects are available.

Mirror Mirror on the wall

Nicole Brown's submission to Vogue.com is an excellent example of one with a well defined self-image. So much so, that she even claims to be "perfect" for flair.com.
But at what point is "perfect" considered to be conceided. This is a grey area in society. In order to be taken as a successful individual, one must first give the image of being such. While it is important to give a strong representation of the self-image, one must be careful not to stretch this too far! No matter what you do, say, how you say it, appear to be, you are constantly being defined by others. This is why an image of the self is of importance. One must be able to keep aware at all times the image you presenting to others.

While this video pertains particularily to visual appearance, it gets the point across! Every detail about the self reflects to the way those in the world perceive you. It is important to be aware of the self-image you are projecting to the world, because quite frankly, we can permit whatever image it is we want.
Example:

Let us return to Nicole Brown. So is she "perfect" or conceided? Well in no way is she conceided. She simply is aware of the image to which applies to the position she is applying for. She recognizes the self-image nessecary in order to meet the criteria of flare.com. A company involved in portraying imagery to the public, they can not invest time or consideration in a person they feel that is not capable of portraying that image they are selling.
Now take the following video, and compare the difference. It will be clear the boundaries between "perfect" and conceided.

You say Apple, I say Bananas!

Quite a catchy tune isn't it? So why is it then that some are putting apple down for selling music through its commercials?
A brief history. Boy in England finds catchy song. Boy makes video for fun and posts it on youtube.com. Apple associate view video, love it, and properly market the video under the said boy's creative control.
What's wrong with this? Nothing. The music industry has been using newest forms of media to advertise music for years now. I believe it started with the jingle...duh. As Bagdikian suggests, selling music has become a process, its not about greed or power. Musicians are now realizing that there are many different ways to distribute their music and have it heard other than the radio. Youtube, Myspace, commercials, all of which are new and great methods to which new audience can be reached for the artist. Pepsi did it with Kanye West and Britney Spears. So give credit to apple for discovering new bands and distributing their music.
This trend in music will continue. Bands like Radiohead are leading way in new and innovative ways of releasing music. Recently the band released their newest album online, and gave consumers the ability to select what price they wished to pay for it. Artists are now looking for ways in which they can release music, and with the ever expanding internet and its availablity, the possibilities for such are endless.

For the last decade, since the inception of Napster, the music industry has been holding onto the idea that they can revive record sales. Best of luck to you folk! I highly doubt that they will be able to do so. Artists have given up on such idealistic approaches to the business, and have now looked at new ways to reach an audience. So why not apple. One of the highest grossing stocks on the market today, Apple, with the ipod, leads trends in music. While it uses these new trends, it is no different that any other form of advertisement. Viewers still get to make their own call as to whether or not they enjoy the music they are hearing in the advertisement.

Nothing beats a good ol' political coup!

What do you do with ex-members of Parliament?
These men who have dedicated their lives to politics do not simply retreat flock to Florida upon retirement, this does not float their boat. Rather, they wish to remain in the media. Having been used to the spotlight of the media, a round of golf on the links just isn't so appealing.

Or so Jean Chretien beleives.
Okay, i may have taken this image out of context a little, but one can't help but laugh at such a picture)
So with such men refusing to leave the spot light, what is the new leader in power to do. You do what us Canadian's do, you blame them with scandal! These men whose actions which were once deemed virtuous, are now to be slandered and deemed almost "criminal" like by the new crowd which has emerged in office. Nothing beats a good ol' political coup.
Even if ex Prime Minister's manage to avoid accusations from the new reigning crowd in Parliament, they eventually find a way to get into trouble.

Look at this happy camper. He even tried to stay out of the spotlight, but was unsuccessful. The Liberal Party seems to be in quite the dilema now. So what to do with such members who may prove detrimental to the current party....do as Harper does, cut em loose.

Love and Marriage....its an institute you can't dispariage!

Let me tell you, when watching the CBC's video of the declining marriage rate in Canada, I felt as though I was an outsider in the hen house. (not to sound demeaning...well kinda.... anyhow)

Upon watching the video for the first time, I acquired no knowledge from it other than a headache caused by the high pitch of women's voices as no strong points were made by either side. I then watched the video for a second time. It was not as bad the second time around, however, I still did not gain anything from having done so.
This people, was a perfect example of the difference between listening and hearing. While I had physically heard what was being said, there was no cognitive response, and I did not absorb what was being said by nearly anyone about this. So I had decided the next step would be to watch the video for a third time and take notes, so that I would participate more actively when watching. My notes turned out like so....

Clearly not a successful attempt. What was wrong with me? It was clear that I was listening selectively. I was merely sitting, listening to what was being said, looking for something of value. Having decided that there was nothing of value to which I was going to get from what was being said in the video, I decided to take a different apprach. I began to think about what wasn't said. In the debate between the women in the video, neither of them used any substantial facts. One of the most obvious facts one might think of pertaining to the issue, is whether or not the birth rate has declined accordingly with marriage. And to my surprise it hadn't! The most important arguement these women scratched upon was a declining population, but this wasn't the case what so ever! So then why aren't people getting married? Maybe marriage just doesn't have the appeal it once had. Who can blame them when shows like "Married with Children" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" depict marriage in the manner they do.
Observe.

So what if people are not getting married. The birth rate in Canada remains the same, and afterall, hasn't marriage as an institution been a way for populations to grow. So if the population can continue to grow without it, why is it people still feel a responsibility, or obligation to do so? Now that is a video to which I would hear something of interest!

One lean, mean thinking machine!

Like HAL9000, is it not possible that your professor could actually be a machine? Don't laugh, we've all thought about it at one time or another! It would be foolish to rule out the idea that these highly intellectual beings could actually be sophisticated "thinking machines." Or for that matter, couldn't anyone who walks amongst us be such. If put to the Turing Test, could one actually be confident that they would be able to determine the difference between man and machine? As far as intelligence goes, is there even really a difference between the two?

Since Descartes, many have had many thought provoking conversations in which end in the realization that the following statement is true. So why is it that when it pretains to robots, one simply huffs and ignores any possibility that this may be true. Many try to critique such an issue stating that there is no way in which a robot could be mistaken for human because they would lack many of our animated abilities....well to that i respond with a simple cartoon.....