Ross • 4th Feb 2010 • Living • climate change, global warming, media, radio, talk radio
Congressman Donald Schwerbitz, who represented South Dakota back in the 1960s and 70s… recognized that carbon emissions are caused primarily by breathing, and he proposed to cut those emissions in half by requiring every American to wear a device that plugs up one nostril. Congressman Schwerbitz… an irrepressible prankster… managed to get himself invited onto a talk radio program to explain how the nostril plugs would work. (The host was in on the joke.) Because talk radio audiences are dominated by libertarians and reactionaries, the response was not positive. Callers clamored for civil disobedience; one threatened that if he ever saw anyone wearing one of these devices, he’d “punch him in his other nose”. Others worried that our clean air might drift over to Cuba, where the communists could use it. A few, though, were enthusiastic. One woman wanted to know if the devices could be adapted to fit animals. Warthogs, she observed, have very big nostrils.
Although the Steven Landsburg piece from which I have stolen this extract isn’t supposed to be a comment on talk radio, I think this sums up the concerns of most talk radio callers well – at least from what I have heard when travelling in a taxi, or getting my hair cut.
Ross • 10th Nov 2009 • Living • dvd, entertainment, information, media, media consumption, news, radio, rss, television
- I wake up listening to Today on BBC Radio 4.
- Waiting for the train, I catch up on my RSS feeds through SpeeedReader [sic] on my phone, which syncs to my Google Reader account. I subscribe to about 40 feeds, business and pleasure, split into categories.
- On the train, I read whatever book I have on the go. These are normally borrowed from friends, gifts, or from Westminster Library, which I walk past twice daily.
- To keep up to speed during at work, I dip in and out of BBC News Online, Google Reader and Google Finance UK.
- At home I watch Freeview (live or recorded on my Media Center PC) or a DVD from the free DVD library I established at work.
- If I’m doing the dishes, I’ll listen to more Radio 4, unless it’s The Archers. I dislike The Archers because I cannot commit to anything approaching every episode and I struggle to remember (or care) which character is having which crisis.
- I don’t drive during the week. At weekends, I drive listening to Radio 4 (Friday night and Saturday) or a music station (local commercial or Radio 1) on Sundays. The same radio attention split applies to weekend running.
- If I am working or studying at home, I’ll normally have earphones plugged in to a feed from Last.fm, a service I adore.
- For some reason, doing DIY makes me want to listen to the type of cabbie talk-radio you find on LBC and BBC London.
- At night, I go to sleep with Kai Rysdall on American Public Media’s Marketplace podcast (thankfully, my wife approves).
My media consumption keeps me fully up to speed of everything that interests and entertains me. The quality of much of this media is exceptional. Today, Marketplace, Marginal Revolution and Last.fm stand out especially.
Why do I mention all of this? Well, because I find it amazing that, aside from the TV Licence, I pay nothing for any of this media.
