Category — news

Over the holidays I received an email regarding a missing person named Evan Tremblay. A family member forwarded it to me and in the email chain I counted no less than 67 names of other email addresses this hoax was forwarded to. God knows how many people those 67 people forwarded it to after receiving it.

Most people forward these types of emails on out of kindness and concern – and were the missing person real, sending this information out could prove useful. There would be more eyes watching out for the missing child, more people who recognize their face and could help track the child.

It’s easy to be taken in because most people figure “What sort of jerk sends out a fake missing person poster?”

There are ways to tell if you’re being taken in though:

Does the poster contain specific information about the child such as:

• age
• height
• weight
• date and time of disappearance
• clothing the child was last seen in
• location the child was last seen in

Does the poster give legitimate contact information should you spot the missing child? Has there been anything on the news or in the paper? Has an organization such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children posted anything regarding the child on their site?

When in doubt, use the search function on Snopes – a great website that collects and dispels stupid hoaxes, urban myths and other types of asshattery.

I think the thing that really annoys me most about these hoaxes is that hoaxes like these make people question legitimate emails and information about those who really are missing. It belittles and diminishes the grief and worry of those who still don’t know where a loved one is – and those people have a legitimate claim to the public’s help.

In short – do a little a research first, if it’s legitimate, then by all means spread the information so help can be given to those who need it.

I just finished reading a great post on Pannonica’s site called A World Without Celebrities? and I had a few things still to say (I posted in the comments – but I can’t write a five-hundred word reply in there; it’d be rude).

Pannonica questions whether we, as a society, are capable of going without celebrities and all the attendant coverage and media madness that surrounds them.

Ultimately, she believes the answer is no – and I agree.

I understand why we’re obsessed: they’re beautiful, rich, they get to hang out with other beautiful and rich people. They wear designer clothes, drive expensive cars, live in palatial mansions and receive favours and gifts from people simply by virtue of being in the public eye.

I think we figure it like this: Some celebrities start out just like us – living a normal life, doing normal stuff, wearing clothes from Walmart or Target and then Something Magical happens and they are suddenly living like gods – the world at their feet, everyone wanting to know them, see them, and if at all possible, to BE them. They have everything.

We want some of the Magic too – we want to know how to get there and failing that, watching them do stupid things like get arrested for drunk driving, shaving their heads in a fit of madness and depression, or seeing a photo of them looking frumpy, tired and badly dressed is fair compensation. If we can’t have what they have, we want to see them lose it. Watching famous people mess up or look bad makes us feel better about ourselves. It makes them more human and brings them back down to our level.

What if we simply stopped being interested? What if, as Pan envisioned, we turned on the news and saw coverage of actual news instead of the latest shenanigans on Big Brother or American Idol?

What if we went one step further and deep-sixed our cable TV and picked up a book, or decided to spend more time with the kids instead of the idiot box? What if, at the grocery store we didn’t buy entertainment magazines because we simply didn’t care all that much about Brad and Angelina’s new babies? What if we stopped squeeing over their love lives and screw-ups?

What happens if we stop watching – and thus, supporting -  crap like Big Brother, Blind Date, American Idol, America’s Top Model and all the other tripe that passes as “quality programming”?

It won’t happen of course. It’s far easier to be entertained than to entertain yourself. Simpler to veg out in front of YouTube or the TV and just let the voices and pretty colours wash over you.

Joe and I got rid of our cable over a year ago and it was weird at first. We had so much more time in the evenings. I spend more of it reading now, writing, playing video games and going out with friends, talking to Joe and generally being engaged with the world. We do buy a couple of shows on DVD (House M.D. and Heroes) but if I didn’t get to watch them anymore, I’d be OK with it.

After all, no one on their death-bed says, “I wish I’d watched more TV when I had the chance.” or “Please, God, just one more YouTube video of dancing hamsters and I’ll come quietly.”

A world without celebrities? I want that world, but I think I’m in the minority.

What is with the selfish sense of entitlement some people have? Why do these people feel that unless their personal concerns are addressed first, that they are being treated poorly?

Yesterday morning there was an underground explosion and fire in downtown Vancouver. This explosion reportedly blew a man-hole cover several feet into the air and melted several kilometers of wire.

Obviously, an explosion like this has caused some issues. Several businesses and residences are still without power, traffic lights were down for at least part of yesterday and getting out of downtown by Transit was taking longer as the buses needed to reroute to go around the problem area. Pretty standard – and rather mild – fallout from an underground explosion.

CBC on-line gives readers the ability to comment on all the news stories they print – which is awesome. So when I looked through the comments on this particular story, the comment that really caught my eye was this one by jahn32:

“Of course they would get the traffic lights and transit system up and running first. Residents and businesses are being treated as second class citizens like always it seems.”

What garbage.

I hate this sort of petulant whining. “My needs as an individual weren’t immediately met. I’m being treated as second class citizen – even though I pay those bastards salary with MY tax dollars. Whine, whine, whine.”

Give me a friggin’ break. This situation was handled perfectly. Yes, jahn32, they would get the traffic lights and transit system up and running first. That only makes sense. If there are people leaving their offices because they can’t work – that means a lot of aimless and nosy people trying to take a look at the problem area. Lots of people looking at something they know nothing about hampers the fire crews, BC Hydro workers and the necessary equipment from getting to the problem and fixing it.

With transit running and traffic lights working, those people can all leave the downtown core without the need for taking several police officers off important things like catching bad guys and sticking them on traffic duty.

With the curious and bored out of the way – BC Hydro can begin assessing and fixing the problem.

It’s not as though whatever actually exploded under the street is a sentient and cruel being who wanted to inconvenience people. This business of feeling like a ”second class” citizen is ridiculous. What a stupid and thoughtless thing to say. People like Rosa Parks have the right to say they were treated as second class citizens – people who are temporarily inconvenienced by a power outage don’t.