This week, Jaunted had a really interesting story that they picked up from the National Geographic blog. Flickr user Eric Fischer has combined geotags and photography habits of thousands of pictures from both Flicker and Picasa and turned them into a map of where locals and tourists frequently hang out in major cities. It provides a unique view of cities such as London, New York, Hong Kong, and more in terms of where the hot spots are and where tourists generally don't go. It's rather fascinating and utterly addictive to flick through these maps.
But now this post will take a sharp turn from "kinda random and interesting" to "WHAT?!"
First, filed under "who cares," Time reported that a group of astronomers have come out saying that astrologers are completely wrong as to which dates apply to which zodiac signs. The result is two-fold: most people get moved to the sign before the one they're accustomed to and people born in early December now belong to the new "Ophiuchus" sign. Many people have been making a big deal of this saying that they're quite happy with the sign that they're used to having.
However, the reality is that astrology hasn't really changed. Most Western astrologers agree that the Western (or tropical) zodiac is fixed unlike the Eastern (or sidereal) zodiac. Moreover, since astrology asserts that the position of the stars relative to the Earth determines a person's personality, a change in signs would imply that EVERY PERSON ON EARTH is about to go through a massive personality change.
Lastly this week, filed under "oh come on...SERIOUSLY?!," the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (aka the CBSC, Canada's equivalent of the American FCC) has banned the Dire Straits song "Money For Nothing" from all Canadian radio stations. On first glance this isn't something shocking. Many new songs with constant profane language and questionable subject manner get banned. Oh wait...Money For Nothing is a 25 year old song about a grumpy delivery man.
The controversy, apparently, stems from a single complaint from someone in Newfoundland over the song's use of the word fag/faggot. Now, I do realize that this word is considered quite offensive to someone of the LGBT crowd. However, the song is from the point of view of a bigoted, idiotic delivery man complaining about rock stars on MTV who just play guitar and get "money for nothing and chicks for free." The slur is not directed at a homosexual. The word is being taken completely out of context.
On a lighter note relating to this subject, this ban has resulted in this song getting massive media attention, and much more play time on radio stations as well as TV news reports. Ironically, the TV news doesn't seem to be subject to the same ban on the word fag as they often seem to play the offending part of the song to illustrate the "problem".
Also, I must extend kudos to Edmonton's K-97 radio station who played the song unedited and back-to-back in a one hour marathon on Friday.
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