Stilgherrian » lisa nowak http://stilgherrian.com All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris. Vive les poissons rouges sauvages! Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:34:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 en © stil@stilgherrian.com () stil@stilgherrian.com() 1440 Live Internet broadcasts from Stilgherrian. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris. stil@stilgherrian.com No no http://stilgherrian.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/sla_144w.jpg Stilgherrian http://stilgherrian.com 144 144 The Pointlessness of News http://stilgherrian.com/human-nature/pointlessness_of_news/ http://stilgherrian.com/human-nature/pointlessness_of_news/#comments Sat, 10 Feb 2007 23:50:48 +0000 Stilgherrian http://stilgherrian.com/human-nature/pointlessness_of_news/ When I posted about the astronaut attempted kidnapping story the other day, I hadn’t realised it had already become a major global story. Now Freakonomics co-author Stephen Dubner asks: Why?

I realize the story represents a sort of perfect storm of media stickiness — a female perp and a female victim, lust, revenge, NASA, pepper spray, and of course the diaper — but I have to confess that I am overwhelmed that this has become such a round-the-clock story. Who cares, and why? They were even talking about the story on the two ESPN shows I saw pieces of last night (SportsCenter and Pardon the Interruption); in each case, the anchors sheepishly acknowledged that the story had zero to do with sports but… they simply couldn’t resist.

With 63 comments so far, there’s plenty of interesting ideas. Well worth the read. The highlights for me…

High-brow tip o’the hat to the guy who quoted Henry David Thoreau:

And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter — we never need read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications? To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

Media-awareness hat-tip to:

In this internet age, news organizations have a built-in focus group. If they post this on their site and gets lots of page views (people clicked to read the article), they know it is a “winner” so they cover it more.

And the low-brow hat-tip to the very first comment:

A woman in diapers pretty much does it for me. If you don’t understand this story then I suggest that you are sexually dead.

God I love the Internet…

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]]> http://stilgherrian.com/human-nature/pointlessness_of_news/feed/ Astronaut charged with attempted kidnapping http://stilgherrian.com/human-nature/astronaut_charged_attempted_kidnapping/ http://stilgherrian.com/human-nature/astronaut_charged_attempted_kidnapping/#comments Tue, 06 Feb 2007 20:40:33 +0000 Stilgherrian http://stilgherrian.com/human-nature/astronaut_charged_attempted_kidnapping/ Police photo of astronaut Lisa Nowak This astronaut didn’t have The Right Stuff, it seems. Or maybe she had too much of it. The photo at left is US Navy Captain Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew a shuttle mission to the International Space Station last July.

But on Monday she was arrested and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts, after she allegedly drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot.

The ABC story apparently finds it important to mention that “Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers so she wouldn’t have to stop to urinate, authorities said. Astronauts wear diapers during launch and re-entry.”

Thanks to Richard for spotting this one!

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