A show about the future, on the History channel. HIS-TO-RY.

1: tale , story
2 a: a chronological record of significant events (as affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their causes b: a treatise presenting systematically related natural phenomena c: an account of a patient’s medical background d: an established record…

Merriam-webster

Ok. “But it’s about Nostradamus, hey that happened in the past. It’s cool. Don’t freak out.” I’m not, and it’s true. The prophecies of Nostradamus are historical, but truly this is much more about the “History” channel than it is about 2012. On the front page of their website there are a few historical shows you’d come to expect, but then: “Extreme Trains!” and “UFO Hunters”. A little deeper and up comes “Modern Marvels”. Yep, real historical History Channel.

Don’t get me wrong though, the History Channel rocks. It’s one of the better channels out there on cable, and can usually be trusted to deliver at least something of intellectual value any time of the day. I wouldn’t be as into it either if they’d strictly stuck to their stuffy Historical documentary docket, and if they did I’m sure they’d be having trouble catching up with the growing Discovery and TLC markets. But they’re hanging in there… you know. Being non-historical and all.

With the delicacy of a fistful of ham, CNN is making an effort to scream in our ears that it in fact is “green”. No literally, it’s green now. Their logo is green, and I’m guessing future set designs will be imbued with the same nauseous hue as to reassure us that our news is fed to us organic and hormone-free. Of course this is all bullshit, CNN is a business operating with an exorbitant budget. I mean they “teleported” a hologram of some hip-hop star with the help of 30 some odd cameras into their “Situation Room” on election night for no reason.

They plaster the walls with excessive amounts of HD televisions and Microsoft Surfaces so that our news feels more “hands-on”. On debate nights they had some loony type of metering system that made absolutely no sense as a piece of information design. They were simply two lines moving up and down along a time-line while the candidates spoke, but you can rest assured some expensive robots were calculating eons of political data in order to bring you “the latest”! As for the greenwashing movement itself, it was already obviously out of hand when we started seeing those ridiculous Exxon Mobile ads about earthquake energy. Of course they’re researching technology that’s not feasible yet while quietly disregarding technology available now. Like the electric car.

Phew, that was a lot of air-quoting. I apologize.

As if we don’t have enough coverage of the election, Newsweek has opened their “Don’t open before Nov. 4th” presents today. But this should actually pretty insightful, and hopefully we get a fair look into the political underworld that churns us into such a frenzy every four years.

This is part one of a seven-part in-depth look behind the scenes of the campaign, consisting of exclusive behind-the-scenes reporting from the McCain and Obama camps assembled by a special team of reporters who were granted year-long access on the condition that none of their findings appear until after Election Day.

~Newsweek

So here’s part one, printer friendly and all. I’m excited for the other 6 parts. Should be a real hoot.

Few public figures, artists or anyone has had more influence on me than Crichton. His death was a bit of a shock, and my thoughts go out to his friends and family. If only we had the nanobots to restore him…

Today’s a bittersweet day.

As an addendum, I’ll likely just be posting outrageous/funny/cat/incredible videos from youtube as I get busier and busier.