Saturday, December 29, 2007

Top Stories in 2007

Currently Listening to: Radiohead, In Rainbows

Here are 2007's top 10 stories, as voted by AP members:

1. VIRGINIA TECH KILLINGS: Seung-Hui Cho, 23, who had avoided court-ordered mental health treatment despite a history of psychiatric problems, killed two fellow students in a dormitory on April 16, detoured to mail a hate-filled video of himself to NBC News, then shot dead 30 students and professors in a classroom building before killing himself. It was the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

2. MORTGAGE CRISIS: A record-setting wave of mortgage foreclosures, coupled with a steep slump in the housing market, buffeted financial markets, caused multibillion-dollar losses at major banks and investment firms, and became an issue in the presidential campaign.

3. IRAQ WAR: The "surge" that sent more U.S. troops to Iraq was credited with helping reduce the overall level of violence. But thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of U.S. personnel were killed nonetheless during the year, and Iraqi political leaders struggled to make meaningful progress toward national reconciliation.

4. OIL PRICES: Oil prices soared to record highs, at one point reaching nearly $100 a barrel. The high prices, which burdened motorists and owners of oil-heated homes, nudged Congress to pass an energy bill that ordered an increase in motor vehicles' fuel efficiency.

5. CHINESE EXPORTS: An array of Chinese exports were recalled, ranging from toys with lead paint to defective tires to tainted toothpaste and food. Despite the high-profile problems, America's trade deficit with China was running at record-high levels.

6. GLOBAL WARMING: Warnings about the consequences of global warming gained intensity with new reports from scientific panels and a Nobel Prize to Al Gore for his environmental crusading that included the film "An Inconvenient Truth." Across the U.S., many state governments sought to cap emissions blamed for global warming.

7. BRIDGE COLLAPSE: An Interstate 35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed during the evening rush hour on Aug. 1, killing 13 people and injuring about 100. The disaster fueled concern about possible structural flaws in other bridges nationwide.

8. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: In a yearlong drama with shifting subplots, large fields in both major parties battled for support ahead of the caucuses and primaries that will decide the 2008 presidential nominees. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama led among the Democrats; some polls showed five Republicans with double-digit support.

9. IMMIGRATION DEBATE: A compromise immigration plan, backed by President Bush and Democratic leaders, collapsed in Congress due to Republican opposition. The plan would have enabled millions of illegal immigrants to move toward citizenship, while also bolstering border security. The issues remained alive in the presidential campaign.

10. IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM: Worried that the ultimate goal is a nuclear arsenal, the United States and other countries pressed Iran to halt uranium enrichment. Iran said it never had a weapons program. A U.S. intelligence report concluded there was such an effort, but it stopped in 2003.

Just missing the Top 10 were the Southern California wildfires and the resignation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general.

"In our opinion, the top story must reflect the nation's stifling problems and the inability of either the Bush administration or the Democrat-led Congress to find solutions other than bickering," he wrote on his ballot.

AP Source

Thursday, December 27, 2007

In Retrospect...

Currently Listening to: Lupe Fiasco, The Cool

Reflecting from the smart writings of George Saunders.

" In the beginning there's a blank mind. Then that mind gets an idea in it, and the trouble begins, because the mind mistakes the idea for the world. Mistaking the idea for the world, the mind formulates a theory and, having formulated a theory, feels inclined to act.

Because the idea is always only an approximation of the world, whether that action will be catastrophic or beneficial depends on the distance between the idea and the world.

Mass media's job is to provide this simulacra (imitation) of the world, upon which we build our ideas. There's another name for this simulacra-building: storytelling. "
-- George Saunders


I don't know why my "ideas" are so far from reality.

From the moment of its conception, the phenomena of my ideas are based on the senses it very much derives on. However far from reality or far from the approximation of the world, I continue my attempts to understand my own ideas-- my own personal story; however complex and utterly abstract it may be.

Having ideas are almost always half true or I should say half visible, and if that half is close to reality then things usually work out. On occasion, I think the role of the mass media distorts the reality of the world by sometimes creating a story that isn't always visible or isn't always correct, and sometimes people amplify this semi-imaginary story based on those false or non-fully transparent ideas, which ultimately may have destructive consequences.


My new goal for the new year is to have ideas that are more beneficial, and to bridge the distance between "the simulacra of the world" so I can understand my own story a little clearer. I wonder if all this makes sense?

I basically took this one little concept of Saunders and applied it to my own life in his writings from The Braindead Megaphone, a book that deals with mass media communications with a comedic and creative approach.