To School or not to school

in Rich Karlgaard's article he discusses the declining value of a university education.

This topic hits particularly close to home because it was an internal debate that I had for some time before coming to Mcmaster. When I was in high school I took a year off to do some acting, work a full time job, and spend more time on my music. That year I made more money than the university educated principal at the school I had attended. In fact.. I made more money than my PhD holding mother who was working only part time.

I decided that though the money came easily... the work wasnt the best (the acting was great.. I mean the full time job) and I yearned for something more. So here I am at university. While I hope to be making a fair bit more money than I was the year I took off.... I often wonder how my life would have been if I had continued to work. One of the main reasons I came to university was to experience living as a university student, something which I had my fill of in a little less than a few months.

Just too good

This clip was just too good to not post

Facebooked

Matthew Trevisan's recent article for the globe and mail highlights the use of facebook by police organizations. I completely support this practice and think that police should be using all of the technology possible to catch criminals.

In the modern age of networked communication police are fighting an uphill battle against tech savvy criminals who are using new forms of technology with criminal intentions. Whether its a illegal party host, a drug dealer, or a pedophile, people are able to commit crimes conveniently. In the show 'Dateline: To catch a criminal' pedophiles are lured into meeting what they think is a minor, but turns out to be the dateline host. They are interviewed.. and then arrested. Not only is it good to be getting these criminals off of the street... it also makes for brilliant television.





"I was going fishing"

"It sounds like what you were fishing for was sex with a 12 year old girl"

Brilliant.. just brilliant

Good is Good.... or Godbseletion

hjbh 018.jpg, originally uploaded by Jacob Karsemeyer.

In Sam Harris's essay for the LA Times he presents some scathing criticisms of religion in the modern world. While religion has its merits (discipline, hope for life after death, stucture, etc) they have caused more problems than they have solved and in the past century or two the technological advances have rendered the benefits of religion obsolete.

Take for instance the Jewish traditions of circumcision, or kosher foods (I promise to never mention circumcision and food in the same sentence again.) A thousand years ago these were great rules to follow. Circumcision prevented infection when hygiene was less thorough. Avoiding pork when refrigeration has yet to be invented is brilliant. These traditions likely prevented many deaths and much sickness, but are no longer necessary as technological advances have changed the way we live. While religious text offers us stories with strong and positive morals, we need to recognize them for what they are; modern elaborate fairy tales.


Heres my friend Joe holding it down next to the God Van that is normally parked a few blocks away from my house in Toronto.

Ellen the Agile.

Ellen Degeneres has somehow been able to evade the glaring eye of public scrutiny. While she has maintained her level of fame and noteriety since her coming out in 1997, she has yet to go down the harrowing road of attention from tabloids.

Her recent interview with Vanity Fair sees her once again avoiding any type of personal information that may attract the media vultures. The interview follows format of The Proust Questionnaire, a format which has appeared in vanity fair for over a decade. It was originally intended to peer deep into the soul of the person being interviewed by asking questions about the things that they fear, and response most. Unfortunately in our culture of sarcasm and humor The Proust Questionnaire seems to have become obselete and no longer offers the insight that it once did.

Ellens Character Dora in Finding Nemo seems to obliviously navigate through life with a blissfull ignorance. It seems that Ellen has likened herself to Dora, and wants her public image to follow; She wants to be funny, cute, innocent, and most importantly simple. She knows that if she projects that persona, the media vultures wont come looking for a story. So like Dora, Ellen the Agile navigates this interview like the goofy simpleton we have all come to know her as.

Ellen is clearly quite in control of her communications. She has tailored a public image that allows her to enjoy her lifestyle without being hounded by paparazzi. She has managed to sidestep all of the pitfalls of being a celebrity. She may have decided to play the role of simpleton, but clearly she is doing something right.

What is the lesson of todays blog?

ELLEN ALWAYS WINS!!

Gilles Duception

Newspapers are notorious for their ability to tell stories in ways that either emphasize, or ignore certain elements.

While Gilles Duceppe's recent resignation for candidacy with the PQ party may not have been the most thought out political maneuver, newspapers like the National Post have slanted the story to make it seem much more catastrophic and negative than it really was.

The first thing that they attack is Duceppe’s devotion to his party. They do so by making it seem as though Duceppe cares more about his image than his party.

“Mr. Duceppe, who had been seen as the sovereignty movement's most effective spokesman, was considering a job that, by separatist logic, ends with the leader becoming head of an independent Quebec state. And his main concern was looking cowardly if he opted out.”

The next thing they do is tell us how to think about Mr. Duceppe by informing us that he has “succeeded in making himself look not only frightened but foolish.”

They quote all of the politicians who criticized Duceppe, and note that everyone reacted by laughing at Duceppe.

And finally, they take a quote out of context. Duceppe said to Bloc when he returned that "Yolande said, ‘Go talk to your caucus. You will feel better,' " and the post reframes that to mean that Duceppe requires ‘the steadying influence of his wife’ to get anything done.

By taking comments out of context, and using negative language to discuss this situation, the post has managed to exaggerate the negativity of it in ways that only skilled communicators can do. If we want to be able to develop untainted views on issues we must be aware of this power and cautious of its effects on us.

Jacques Chirac

In two days Jacques Chirac, the president of France, will hand his position over to Nikolas Sarkozy. Like most politicians, he will be remembered for his follies as much, if not more, than by his accomplishments.




The media loves to catch politicians saying or doing things that are inappropriate, and Chirac was often criticized for his loose tongue and questionable political adversaries. Like Chirac, Toronto's own Mel Lastman's career was plagued with media attention from embarrassing quotes or comments that are taken out of context. A lesson can be learned about the life of a public persona; your mistakes are often magnified while your accomplishments sometimes go unnoticed.