“Black Hole”

Cultural Context:  An apparently racially offensive reference made by a white Dallas, Texas County Commissioner during a Commissioners meeting this week.  In a discussion about traffic tickets, Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield referred to the County Collections office as a “black hole.”  Two black Commissioners demanded an apology, claiming the statement was racist in nature.  In statements after the meeting,  Commissioner John Wiley Price also indicated that terms like “devil’s food cake” (a recipe traditionally made of chocolate) and “black sheep of the family” were also racist in nature.  Read the FoxNews article.

Huh?

Is every use of the word “black” in our language now a racist statement?  Is every reference to something dark now a racist statement?  Is every reference to chocolate?  Every reference to the “devil?”  I’m concerned.  The answers to these questions will determine whether I’ve been offending people willy-nilly my whole life, because those words have been incorporated into my vocabulary since I was a preschooler.  What about the terms “little white lie,” “white noise,” or “white-collar crime?”  Should I be offended by society in general, the technology sector and the judicial sector respectively?

Two observations:

• This ridiculous discourse has now been given national credence in that it appears in today’s news on Politics at FoxNews.com.  No doubt I’ll hear someone discussing it ad nauseam as I surf the channels tonight.  I saw the story when it rotated into one of the top news spots on the home page — you know, the ones with the giant headlines.  It was right above a sublink to the story about Atlanta retiring its “Men Working” construction signs in favor of the more politically correct “Persons At Work.”  Commissioner Price now has his 15 minutes.
   
• In writing my description above, I realized that to portray it accurately I had to list the parties as black or white.  This story is only pseudo-significant if the race of each Commissioner is made clear.  I thought the whole purpose of seeking racial equality and reform was that a person wouldn’t need to be defined primarily by his race.  Talk about a step backwards.

For the record:
Wikipedia tells me:  ”A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon.  The term “Black Hole” comes from the fact that, at a certain point, even electromagnetic radiation (e.g. visible light) is unable to break away from the attraction of these massive objects. This renders the hole’s interior invisible or, rather, black like the appearance of space itself.”

Wikipedia also tells me that the term black sheep: “originated from the occasional black sheep which are born into a herd of white sheep due to a genetic process of recessive traits. Black sheep were considered commercially undesirable because their wool cannot be dyed as white wool can.”

Devil’s Food Cake:  I’m not even going to go there, except to say that if you are resisting your sweet tooth, chocolate would certainly be classified as sinful.

With due respect to Commissioner Price, we both live in the American South where racism has been a huge issue and a very real experience for many since way before I was born.  In fact, my home state of Mississippi has been the poster child for racism since well before the Civil Rights Movement began.  We (both black and white citizens) continue to struggle to overcome its effects and its stigma in seeking a place of relevance in society in 2008.  In all honesty, MANY disparities still exist between the educational, economic, health and social opportunites available for blacks versus whites.  These are real life battles for our future that are still being fought, and we must win them.  We don’t have time or energy for the ignorant, hypersensitive and publicity-hungry battles over semantics to which this situation shifts the focus.  It’s shameful, and it’s holding us back.

“Super-Earths”

Cultural Context:  The term used by astronomers to describe planets which according to this article, are “more massive than Earth, but less massive than Uranus and Neptune (about 15 Earth masses).” It is being announced at the international conference “Extra-solar Super-Earths” in France that three such planets have been discovered orbiting the star HD 40307.  The “triple-system” was discovered using the “HARPS spectograph” attached to the telescope in La Silla, Chile.  The discovery has been termed a “remarkable breakthrough in the field of extra-solar planets.”

Hmmm…

It’s a bird!  It’s a plane!  No, I guess it’s more aptly categorized as ScienceSpeak rather than CultureSpeak since I’m probably a typical example of the world citizen who clearly has no frame of reference for this term.  However, call it my “geek-bent,” but I’m intrigued.  And being that I’m still pretty much in the dark even after reading the article, a few questions/comments orbited to mind:

• I really had to eeny-meeny-miney-mo to decide on which term to post about because there were so many odd ones like “exoplanets,” “Doradus and Pictor constellations,” and “perturbations” (I’m thinking that one’s a post that would write itself!)
   
• ScienceDaily.com is a cool site.  It usually leaves me asking “who knew?” and inevitably responding “clearly, not me!”  I’ve sort of internally labeled it: Weird things you can get government and private grants to think about.
   
• For the address of a “remarkable breakthrough,” HD 40307 has a pretty uninspiring star name.  I would think it deserves a little more Wow! factor.  I’m sure there’s some star envy going on with 51 Pegasi, site of a 1995 planetary discovery.  Although, the article says HD 40307 experiences only very minor “perturbations” so it’s probably not creating much friction.
   
• As one of the scientists on the project, Michael Mayor’s job description is “planet hunter.”  Cool.
   
• According to the article, this study implies that 1 in 3 solar-like stars have a Super-Earth planet.  With HD 40307’s count of 3 planets, this star is an overachiever.  Plus, it’s nice and trim — slightly less massive than our sun.  This stellar dude needs an image consultant to appeal to a wider audience.  Just look at what he has going for him, but with that name…
   
• Apparently planets can be classified as Jupiter-like, Saturn-like and Neptune-like, but are almost always measured in Earth-masses.  I’m curious as to the qualifications of these particular classifications.
   
• The HARPS spectograph can apparently only detect planets with greater Earth-masses.  “Earth-like” planets are just too small.  I can hear the ACLU rushing to file now — wait HARPS is located in Chile, so I guess all those Earth-like planets can go on having their opportunities denied simply based on their size.
   
• More curious Google Ads with the article: 
  “2008 Diet of the Year” — for those overly massive Super-Earths, I guess
  “Car Prices & Pictures” — for the cheapest way to get “42 light-years away towards the southern Doradus and Pictor constellations”
  “Earth Harvest” clicking to Zappos.com — moon shoes, perhaps?
   

When it’s all said and done, one of the scientists suggests that with this study’s findings, we “may well arrive at the conclusion that planets are ubiquitous.” — not part of my everyday vocabulary, but it means omnipresent.

OK, I may be a little late to the party, but I think I can eventually arrive there with the use of Google and GPS — I mean PPS (planetary positioning system).

Threebie 01: STOP THE PRESSES

(Here is my first installment of “Threebie” posts.  Read about “Threebies” here.)

At 5pm EST on June 1, 1980, after an introduction by Ted Turner that declared “I dedicate the news channel for America — the Cable News Network,” CNN began its first news broadcast.  Its lead story covered President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Vernon Jordan in a Fort Wayne, IN hospital while the Civil Rights attorney and activist recuperated from an attempted assassination.  Just minutes after launch, the program “cut-away” from it’s first commercial break to offer live coverage of the visit.  (See CNN’s first broadcast here.)

And with that, the face of television and media in general was forever changed.  

Almost 30 years later, as I check out CNN.com for the 5th time this morning, in my mind I want to shout “STOP THE PRESSES!” — but, not until I check out FoxNews.com and Eonline.com one more time.  It’s addictive!  And, I’m just an information junkie looking for one more fix.  We have developed into a media-hungry (even obsessed) culture where even the most trivial items are elevated to “news” status by sheer virtue of their ability to fill up airtime and fulfill advertising obligations.  How did we get here?

CNN, appropriately named, was the first 24-hour cable news network.  Its format allowed viewers to gain information about breaking stories faster than they ever had before — almost immediately, in fact.   The network’s premise and programming philosophy made broadcasting live events a priority while maintaining a regular news oriented schedule.

This concept that has become so completely ingrained in our culture and expectations was actually foreign in 1980 and had many doubters.  What was the difference?  In essence, CNN did not stop the presses.  Where newspapers had multiple edition deadlines throughout the day (and night) and traditional networks broadcast news within strict programming schedules that governed when all but the most crucial news could be shown, CNN offered new “news” at every moment — or at least a re-telling of old news and the opportunity to engineer live coverage at the first inkling of a newsworthy crisis.

Now that other news networks and the internet have jumped on board, how has my understanding of news changed?

• Thanks to 8 months on the campaign trail and 4 more to go, I now know more about the Electoral College than my 7th grade Social Studies teacher — and a lot more about hairstyles of candidates and candidate’s wives, way more about that church in Chicago and it’s outspoken pastor, and more than enough sound bites trying to match the power of “I have a dream” or “Ask not what your country can do for you.”
   
• TMZ.com is a bona fide news source.  Hmmm.
   
• Instead of just leaving troop movement to the Pentagon, I can follow a map drawn in the sand by my trusty embedded correspondent.
   
• News reporters are now the newsmakers, using terms like “rednecks” to describe entire voting districts.
   
• Instead of waiting for the next magazine issue covering all the latest starlet styles, I can get a panty shot every time they get in or out of a car.  And, with the advent of high-resolution digital cameras, someone will even let me know the brand — eeew.
   
• Al Gore can concede, retract, concede, retract right up until the Supreme Court gets involved because after all if CNN said it, it must be true.
   
• Forget gas prices and the 2008 presidential election, the top 4 stories in the U.S. section of FoxNews.com include an environmental rant of the Mayor of Ocean City, MD, population 7,173.  Talk about your 15 minutes!
   
• After tuning in to the multitude of ambidextrous political pundits and their daily programs, I am now psychic.  I know what the president is thinking before he does.
   
• Instead of writing about the things that are important to me — like my family, my job, the Bible verse on my mind, and my life — I’m writing about CNN!  What?!?

Stop the presses, people!

Accidental Profundity

Quote of the day:  “Lies are the new facts”

It took me a few minutes to digest this statement when I read it.  After all, it reportedly came from a segment on “Live with Regis and Kelly,” not the place I would normally expect to hear poignant social evaluation.  But, the more I thought about it, the more astounded I was at just how profound a commentary on our culture the statement really is.

The Context:  During an appearance on the “Live with Regis and Kelly” television program, actress Gina Gershon described a Vanity Fair article that hinted she’d had an inappropriate relationship with former president Bill Clinton as a “crazy, outright lie.”  She further commented that such media stories should never make it into print, but in the common media culture today, “lies are the new facts.”  (See my post on President Clinton’s reaction to the article.)

We often hear these kinds of statements implying more cosmetic shifts in the general perspective — observations like “forty is the new thirty,” or “brown is the new black” — but, never broadened to the all encompassing analysis of true versus false. Continue reading »

Daytime Television Debris

Recently, I spent almost a week at home with bronchitis, and along with stints of checking email and obsessing about the work projects I wasn’t getting done, I had the occasion to tune in to daytime television.  Now, I’ll admit that I can be up for a good soap marathon with the best of the couch potatoes, especially when I’m sick.

However, during my recent bronchitis soap marathon, somewhere between meeting Victor’s long lost son, watching Katie grieve for her brother who committed suicide so he could be her heart donor (it’s a soap, people!), rolling my eyes at Jack and Carly’s argument because we all know they really love each other, and conniving with Lizzie to keep Bill from taking over Spaulding Enterprises… I started surfing channels.  Channel surfing always yields some interesting moments when paired with being tired, bored and on meds.  I found that in those circumstances, you’ll pay attention to almost anything which obviously leads to lots of thought debris – those random observations that really have nowhere else to go.  So, here they are on EyeJunkie! Continue reading »

“Endurance Specialist”

Cultural Context: The term used by Fox News to describe the “occupation” of David Blaine, who broke the Guinness World Record for holding his breath (17 minutes, 4 seconds) –– a feat which he accomplished on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on April 30th (read the story here)

Hmmm… Continue reading »