Is the Internet Replacing TV?

In a significant development the Internet is on the cusp of surpassing TV as an "essential medium" for Americans according to a poll announced on 28 June 2007 by the Edison Media Research Inc. 33% of Americans selected the Internet as crucial for news and entertainment while TV elicited 36%. Radio could garner only a 17% loyalty and newspapers a distant 10%, according to the Internet and Multimedia 2007 report by the Somerville, N.J.-based market research firm. In 2002, only 20% of U.S. consumers said they preferred the Internet, compared to 39% for TV. The Internet has made significant gains in the intervening time. The survey polled 1,853 telephone interviews conducted in January and February with respondents age 12 and older who were chosen at random. Those polled were representative of the American population.

The point to take away from this survey is to conclude that the Internet has become just as important as television as a source of information and entertainment. While TV has limitations, the Internet may be even more of a handicap. The Net has an advantage in speed and is even more immediate of a medium than TV but the notion of balance, fairness, and depth of thought is even less.

In einer bedeutenden Entwicklung ist das Internet auf der Spitze des Übertreffens von von Fernsehapparat als "wesentliches Mittel" für Amerikaner entsprechend einer Abstimmung, die am Juni 28 2007 durch die Edison Mittel-Forschung Inc. verkündet wird. 33% von Amerikanern wählte das Internet vor, das für Nachrichten und Unterhaltung, während Fernsehapparat, entscheidend ist 36% herausbekam. Radio konnte nur 17% und Zeitungen 10%, entsprechend dem Internet- und Multimedia2007 Report durch das Somerville ansammeln, N.J.-based Marktforschungsunternehmen. 2002 sagte nur 20% von VEREINIGTE STAATEN Verbrauchern, daß sie das Internet bevorzugten, verglichen bis 39% für Fernsehapparat. Das Internet hat bedeutende Gewinne in der intervenierenden Zeit gebildet. Die Übersicht stimmten 1.853 Telefoninterviews ab, die im Januar geleitet wurden und Februar mit Antwortendalter 12 und älteres, wer zufällig gewählt wurden. Abgestimmte die waren Repräsentant der amerikanischen Bevölkerung. Der Punkt, zum von dieser Übersicht wegzunehmen soll feststellen, daß das Internet gerade so wichtig wie Fernsehen als Quelle der Informationen und der Unterhaltung geworden ist. Während Fernsehapparat Beschränkungen hat, kann das Internet sogar mehr eines Handikaps sein. Das Netz hat einen Vorteil in der Geschwindigkeit und ist von einem Mittel als Fernsehapparat sogar sofortiger, aber der Begriff der Balance, der Gerechtigkeit und der Tiefe des Gedankens ist sogar kleiner.

Blogs

Blogs are a new way to communicate although many are not read or are dying at the same time. The format is easy to use and not at all like the old days where everything was hard coded. I enjoy participating.

Review of: Establishing and Maintaining Long-Term Human-Computer Relationships

Date: Tue 26-07-2005 02:05 PM

Review Number: 38526

Establishing and maintaining long-term human-computer relationships

Establishing and maintaining long-term human-computer relationships Bickmore T., Picard R. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 12(2): 293-327, 2005. Type: Article

The authors investigate the meaning of “human-computer relationship” and present techniques for “constructing, maintaining, and evaluating such relationships.” Their primary conclusion is that they “have motivated the development of relational agents as a new field of research.”

Two particular relational benefits motivate their research: trust and task outcomes (like improved learning) known to be associated with relationship quality. The authors are concerned with evaluating whether agents “establish and maintain long-term social-emotional relationships with their users.” Their experiment with 101 users interacted daily with an exercise adoption system for a month. Compared to an equivalent task-oriented agent the computer based relational agent was trusted
more.

Placing agents on mobile devices could provide a potent combination of relationship building (an ever-present “buddy”) and for behavior change (providing timely and appropriate interventions).

Work should be done regarding the nature of the buddy. Examples of conversational systems such as R2D2 in StarWars and Microsoft Office Assistant (“Clippit”) engendered mixed results: the former was cute and helpful, the latter intrusive and grating. And, there are political and ethical considerations in designing a buddy. Should the buddy be a thing or a neutered object as the two examples above, or perhaps a male, or as in the authors study a female? And, finally as the authors note, in these proactive buddy scenarios, which are monitoring us, raise issues
of privacy and security: with whom do you let it share which pieces of relational or personal information, and how does it earn your trust to do so?

When did the U.S. first commit ground troops to the Middle East?

When did the United States commit to placing ground troops in the Middle East? Did George Bush, Sr., or Jr., invent the doctrine? No.

The Eisenhower Doctrine, a message to Congress on 5 January 1957, was the foreign policy of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The doctrine stated that the United States would use armed forces upon request in response to imminent or actual aggression to the United States. The doctrine made it clear that the U.S. would intervene in the Middle East against aggression. George Bush did not invent the doctrine; the Eisenhower Doctrine was U.S. policy for years before Bush.

The military action provisions of the Doctrine were applied in the Lebanon Crisis the following year,
in 1958, when America intervened in response to a request by that country's president.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

American Hijab: non-American Hijab

Men don't cover themselves in Islam. Men do enforce women covering themselves. Guess who has the problem? Male Muslims. A Bahraini cleric even provides the guidelines on how to properly beat your wife. Or, a girl's actions may result in an "honor" killing.

Women pursued higher education and the professions for well over a hundred years in the West. Isn't it about time for Islam as well? Is there to be a Reformation in Islam? A French Revolution? I suppose if you never had the equivalent of a French Revolution you would tend to be backward: e.g., Olympe de Gouges.

Muslim women are oppressed. I hope there is no need to mention clitorectomies is there? This is exclusively a Muslim phenomenon: Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus do not practice this in any appreciable numbers. If human beings scar themselves or harm themselves is it any less oppressive because free will and choice is involved? Western law will still intervene in cases of attempted suicide or the harming of one's own person. The discussion of human rights is Western, not Islamist.

In Brasil street children are shot in the struggle for food and basic existence. An unpleasant, although based on a real story is the Brazilian film, City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus), in which this brutal struggle for subsistence occurs. As it happens, City of God is a four-time Academy Award-nominated 2002 Brazilian film. Most of the actors had never acted before, and were, in fact, residents of favelas such as Vidigal and the Cidade de Deus itself. If I had any opportunity at all I would impose my own values, my own culture, and my own Western way of life on behalf of Third World children. Western culture is superior; the Third World values here are inferior.

The U.S. has imposed American values in the Afghan and Iraqi constitutions to require that a specific number of representatives be women. Progress comes slow to Islamism and is in response to Western American pressure. American feminists have not done tangibly as much to liberate women elsewhere.

As diplomats come to the U.S. they should respect American values so as not to offend any of us and wear American flag pins, and Africans and Arabs should remove their own traditional style of dress, in favor of Western attire. American male Muslims adopt Western dress easily, but contradictorily, the removal of the Hijab may be considered an invitation to rape according to Zakir Naik, a male Muslim apologist who often speaks in the U.S. But who would require, and agree, with a ridiculous proposition such as non-Westeners should be required to adopt American dress as an example of `when in Rome, do as the Romans do.' But this is precisely the thinking of a Pelosi who as American politician adopts non-Western dress: gutless.

There is no Arabic equivalent for citizen or democracy. Japan and Germany learned about how democracy really worked following their destruction in a World War. Likewise, some cultures may have to learn how to prosper economically and politically, like Japan and Germany following their defeat, at the hands of Western conquerors.

Please note:
Palestinian Female Suicide Bombers who are heavily covered (not to mention heavily armed).

And, if this is not enough to turn your stomach you can always watch how the children are raised. Small Palestinian children perform while dressed as suicide bombers and terrorists, heavily armed waving guns and knives. The crowd of approving parents waves and applauds the kids. I guess they never heard of baseball. I liked the kid with a doll: and, an assault rifle. All the girls are well-covered though and I suppose that is the important thing. An Islamist generation is coming.

When you are tired, when you are hungry, when you are feeling sorry for yourself, think about someone fighting for freedom.