News of the real
December 2005/ January 2006
Human beings are dominant
The biomass of homo sapiens now exceeds that of all other land animals combined. There are more people than birds on our planet.
Seventy percent of all television shows now have sexual content
The number of sexual scenes on television has nearly doubled since 1998. This was the major finding of the Kaiser Family Foundation in a new study released on November 9. According to the study, “Seventy percent of all shows have sexual content, up from 56% in the first study in 1998 and 64% in 2002. Two-thirds (68%) of all shows include talk about sex, and 35% of all shows include sexual behaviors. The proportion of shows with sexual content in prime-time on the major broadcast networks has also increased. Nearly eight in ten such shows (77%) include sexual content, compared to 67% in 1998 and 71% in 2002.
“Among the top 20 most-watched shows by teens, 70% include some kind of sexual content, and nearly half (45%) include sexual behavior.”
In addition to being more frequent, the PTC’s own research shows that the sexual content on television has become coarser and more explicit. In the past month alone, popular prime-time broadcast series have included plotlines about bestiality (Boston Legal), a sexual relationship between a teenaged girl and her adopted brother (Close to Home), and a pedophile (Without a Trace).
Parents Television Council, parentstv.org. November 9, 2005
French riots not caused by poverty, racism, or other external factors
Typical narrow interpretation of the French riots
Eleven nights of consecutive violence followed the deaths of two young Muslim men of African descent in a Paris suburb. Clichy-sous-Bois, the impoverished and segregated north eastern suburb of Paris, home to the two dead boys and the initial violent reaction to their deaths, was always a ticking time bomb for the kind of dramatic social upheaval we are currently witnessing. One in two inhabitants are under twenty, unemployment is at over forty percent, while identity checks and police harassment are a daily experience.
Humane explanation
Incredibly, a simple gesture of regret could go a long way towards defusing the tensions for now. At a press conference organised the morning after the gassing of the mosque, a young Muslim girl summed up a widespread feeling: “We just want them to stop lying, to admit that they’ve done it and to apologise. That’s the only think that we are asking them to do.” It might not seem much, but in today’s France it would require a deep political and ideological transformation with nothing short of the full recognition of these eternal ‘immigrants’ as full and equal citizens of the Republic. This is not about to happen anytime soon.
Naima Bouteldja, November 10, 2005
Another world is possible
A new model for trade was proposed during President Bush’s visit to the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. Amidst massive protests, [Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez] cited the sale of Venezuelan petroleum to fourteen Caribbean countries at a 40 percent discount and with an interest rate of one percent over twenty-five years.
“It was a turning point in Latin American history,” claims Marcelo Langieri, academic secretary of the Sociology faculty at the University of Buenos Aires. Langieri emphasized what he considers a paradigm shift in the dialogue. “Not only was the FTAA questioned, but also the neoconservative economic model and capitalism,” and by somebody in a position of power such as Chávez’s.
Regional opponents of Bush’s free trade agreement accuse it of fomenting inequality and placing poorer countries at the mercy of wealthier ones. The Bolivarian alternative proposes regional integration with the goal of fighting poverty and social exclusion.
President Bush’s entourage in Argentina included 2,000 people and four AWACS surveillance systems.
The Nation, Nov. 5, 2005
Medical bureaucracy encroaching on travelers’ freedom
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a phone-book-thick proposed rule yesterday that would give the federal government new powers to track the comings and goings of individual travelers and expand the circumstances under which passengers exposed to a serious communicable disease could be isolated or quarantined.
Although travelers would be asked to provide more personal information--including phone numbers and e-mail addresses--the goal is simply to be able to contact people if it becomes apparent they sat near an infected person while traveling.
No one could be forcibly isolated for longer than the amount of time it takes for the suspected disease to be no longer communicable--less than a month for most diseases.
November 23, 2005, Washington Post
Cingular and Verizon to make pornography available on cellphones
The nation’s major cellular phone carriers said yesterday that they had adopted a content rating system for video, music, pictures and games that they sell to cellphone users--a development that could pave the way for them to begin selling pornography and sex-oriented content on mobile devices.
The carriers said the ratings, meant to mimic content classifications for movies and video games, are voluntary.
Initially, the carriers would classify content in two categories: general interest and restricted content deemed appropriate only for people over the age of 18.
The carriers said they had agreed not to begin making restricted content available until they had developed filters and other technological tools that would enable parents to prevent children from getting access to inappropriate material.
The carriers, including Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless, the largest and second-largest mobile companies, said they were developing filtering technology and that it should be available soon.
November 9, 2005, The New York Times