Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Television news is doing something that really pisses me off. Any video that's popular online gets a showing on the evening news now. It's not even just something that might pass as news, cute puppy/kitten videos, kids, any video that goes viral now ends up on the evening news.

Oh no, please, don't give us actual in depth news coverage, keep the cute kitten videos coming!

This Invisible Children/Kony video is now of course making its round on the TV and radio news shows. But has any news show given any details on the other side? The fact that the Invisible Children foundation exists to pay its staff and the film makers, that it gives only a tiny fraction of the money to actually help? The fact that Kony isn't even in the country anymore? Does the news mention that the founders of Invisible Children actually worked with the bad guys before making this video? (The video is made to take people in though, so it's not surprising that it moved folks.)

Yes. One station did. NPR.

Lots of groups (*cough* right wing, conservative ones) attack NPR. LIBERALS! Oh so left wing! But know what? They're also the ones who do the in depth news. They don't just give 15-30 seconds per story, they'll take as long as needed to cover it. I've listened to 10 minute or longer news stories on one single issue! Not to mention, they cover all the stuff that more mainstream media doesn't.

(This week they've been running a series of stories about a weed called pigweed and how cotton farmers are dealing with it. What I've taken from the story: Farmers know way too little about evolution. They think that since they had one herbicide that worked on it, it would work forever. Hello, evolution calling, it's for you! Think of predators and prey: One gets better so the other has to get better so the first has to get better again. IT'S HOW LIFE WORKS! But no, please, go on thinking that one herbicide will work forever! /rant rant)

Anyway. Last year NPR was the charity I donated to. This year it's ASPCA. (I had thought that signing up for the monthly donations would make those commercials less effective on me. Wrong. They just make me want to donate more. :/ ) They're both worthy, I have no idea which I'll give to next year.

Edit: ARGRRRAGRUG*#$(_FG!# And as I post this, a news-talk show is doing another story on that Kony video. Sigh. I have to stop watching the news. This is making me rage.

Edit 2: And of course I'm not saying that the kids don't need help. Anyone in a warzone needs help, especially children. It's the self-serving Invisible Children foundation that I'm talking about.

Edit 3: Speaking of videos, eek, wow! This is all animation and motion capture, not a real person.
Video here. The middle of the video (which is what shows when you embed) is suggestive, so I'm linking to it instead. It is mostly work safe, though sex is mentioned.

You kids get off my lawn! *shakes cane*

While this post mentions WoW, it's not about WoW, so all you non-players don't need to run off!

There I was, happily online this morning, when some random WoW kid insults the whole group of us. "u r all morons" or something like that. Mostly I try to ignore this crap, because if I responded to it all the time I'd wear holes in my keyboard, but now and then I can't help it.

I responded back, politely suggesting that he spell correctly if he intended to call us stupid. (Polite, seriously! I find that gets the most amusing responses.) He replied that 'u' is just as acceptable as 'you' because it's a "short form" of the word.

ARG! *pulls hair out*

I can't imagine the trouble teachers must have with this crap. I bet they get essays full of "u", "r", "ur"...