Media

This article describes how to install an HD TV Antenna to get free over the air channels, so you can get rid of the cable or satellite subscription.

Here is my TV Fool report. Note that some channels are not listed (e.g. CBC), but it provides you with an approximate list of what channels you can get, what power each is at, and which direction to face.

The nearest intersection for me is Fischer Hallman and Erb St W, in the west end of Waterloo.

Home-made Attempt: Coat Hanger Antenna

According to this AP article, the U.N. says that the number of people affected by the Pakistan floods of 2010, worse than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined.

Yet, the coverage in the media is not as big as those events have got, and consequently, less aid is being donated for them.

An academic paper by Elizabeth Anne Roodhouse titled The voice from the base(ment): Stridency, referential structure, and partisan conformity in the political blogosphere analyzes six top political blogs and their coverage of Sarah Palin's candidacy for Vice President in 2008.

An interesting finding is:

Two recent articles from Al-Jazeera show the misinformation that is widespread about Swine Flu.

The first was an article lamenting how some Arab countries has imported pork meat, including Egypt, Bahrain, and the UAE. The article implies a connection between consuming pork, and catching swine flu. An avalanche of equally uninformed comments from visitors as response to the article. Many of the comments are focusing on the Islamic ban on consuming pork.

The other article is about Egypt's parliament considering discontinuing pig farms, with the approval of the Coptic Orthodox Church. At issue are the jobs affected by that, including the garbage collectors and recyclers providing feed for the pigs.

The White House has a gallery of Obama's visit to Ottawa yesterday.

One of the photos has a caption of Obama with "Canadian Prime Minister Graves".

Here is a screenshot, since it will probably be corrected soon.

A while back, the Turkish TV soap opera Noor saw wide viewership in the Arab world, in subtitled form. Several divorces has been attributed to this show, with social scientists attributing this to unrealistic expectations by some viewers vs. real life.

Now, British researchers have independently reached a similar conclusion: romantic comedies set unrealistic expectations, and hence ruin couple's relationship.

US President-Elect Barack Obama was on an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC yesterday.

Among the things that was discussed, was his intention on keeping the Blackberry he currently uses.

What struck me was this quote:

"One of the things that I'm going to have to work through is how to break through the isolation -- the bubble that exists around the president.

Media bias is a well known fact. Here is an example on how two Canadian news organizations are reporting on Christmas celebrations by the Christian Palestinians in Gaza.

While CBC highlights the plight of Palestinians under Israeli occupation and border closure, CTV has taken a more biased view where it presents Christians are oppressed by Muslims in Gaza, specially under the rule of Hamas.

Ignored are the facts that Christians and Muslims have lived side by side in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East for more than 13 centuries.

Back in August, opposition newspapers in Egypt reported that president Hosni Mubarak's health has deteriorated, as well as speculation about the succession.

It seems that this is a sensitive topic among the ruling elite,
because in a rare reaction, Mubarak was interviewed in Al Ahram, the
semi official newspaper and the headline read : "I know who is
spreading these rumors and their objectives".

Two decades ago, Air India flight 182 was bombed over the Atlantic ocean.

The main suspects were militant Sikhs devoted to creating a homeland independant of India, and protesting the Indian army storming the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Kalwant Mamak is a Sikh-Canadian who lost his 42 year old wife in the bombing. She was going to India to visit her sick father. He describes in some detail how his life was impacted: he could barely cook, his son did not hug his mother out of embarassement at the airport, and more.