My Christmas Wish

TIME magazine is famous for dumbing down the news coverage and there's no bigger contrarian indicator than their cover page.

Every new Warner Brothers movie gets a cover story, every apple device launch gets one, and if there's dearth of publicist driven stories...there's holy Mary, Jesus to fall back on.

Fine, every magazine does the same thing, wait....there's Housing bubble, what housing bubble?
There's no year-end media circus event which is more idiotic and unimportant than the TIME person of the year. (Excluding TIME 100, that's beyond my intellectual ability). Every President elect will be chosen as TIME person of the year, that's a default. Enemies of US, no matter how much they changed the course of our lives, wouldn't be the person of the year. Osama bin Laden wasn't the person of that year, Rudy Giuliani was. (Of course Stalin and Hitler were exceptions, not quite sure where we stand on Putin though). See the previous person gallery here

As God is my witness (intended to dramatize), here's the list of probable people I wrote for this year, before checking TIME website.

Arab Uprisings
Occupy Wall St
Anonymous
Navy seals
Barack Obama
Grover Norquist
Steve Jobs
Kim Kardashian
Rupert Murdoch

I checked TIME website and they didn't disappoint. Below are the few people who're nominated for this year, and I'm delighted to see Kim on the list

Usually TIME probables can be broadly categorized into these
Obvious picks
Barack Obama
Anonymous
Navy Seal Team 6
1%, 99%
Steve Jobs

Lame picks
Gabriel Giffords (I don't mean to diminish the Congress Woman's shooting, but she's only a victim of a deranged person's shooting)
Kate Middleton (A British woman married to a British prince, 2nd in line to throne)
Dominique Strauss-Kahn (accused of raping a hotel maid, but prosecution dropped the charges)
Charlie Sheen

"Who the F is this again" picks
Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkey's PM)
Lionel Messi (Argentina's soccer player)
Ai Weiwei

"Intended to rage readers" picks
Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO, who have a knack for splitting companies and sending emails to all the subscribers after having too many drinks)
Casey Anthony
Michele Bachmann
Rupert Murdoch
Kim Kardashian

The last section is the reason why I love TIME. Just for the web hits, robo voting...they'll let people vote for their choice, even though Time's contributors pick the person. the panel for this year is very diversified(for the lack of better word)..Brian Williams, Mario Batali, Anita Hill, Jesse Eisenberg, Grover Norquist and Seth Meyers.

I'm appalled that heavy weights like Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Sarah Palin aren't on list, I'm gonna weep to sleep tonight. Meh, my intellectual inspiration Rep. Michele Bachmann is here..I'll take it.

Folks I'll cut to the chase, I want Kim Kardashian to be the new Person of the year. Please TIME, please! She's the epitome of the moral bankruptcy of the American culture, that is putting very mildly. She got everything you're looking for. No real talent in whatsoever form, sex tape, reality show, perfume, overpriced clothing, paid appearances, discontinued charge card, dimwitted athlete husband. Wait there're spin off reality shows for her sisters and other family members also.

She divorced her second husband with in the span of 72 days and that tipped off the Public. They actually believed that the fairy tale wedding was real and they'll live together ever after. Now they all feet cheated, they're angered and outraged that she took' em all for a ride.

Please TIME, keep it real, and make this woman the Person of the year.
(Don't mind the 19220 haters who voted against her, haters gonna hate)

Peace.

P.S. For what it's worth, time predicted the next president right. It's a kinda bold move for 2006, as Spitzer/Obama was perceived as hot ticket at that time and then Eliot Spitzer got caught in a sex scandal.

Update 12/03/2011
There's one more media event, which is more trivial and idiotic than this. It's the year-end sex surveys in Indian news magazines. For some reason, they do it every year and each year it's shocking. India Today just released theirs and Outlook might send one our way pretty soon.
Here's BBC's Indian Correspondent's column about this topic.

images via TIME

Steven P. Jobs, 1955-2011

I wonder whether this world would ever idolize any other CEO like we idolized you Steve.
RIP Steve, we will miss you.



image via apple

Front Row tickets

George Carlin said this in 2004.

"When you are born in this world, you are given a ticket to the Freak Show, and when you are born in America, you have a front row seat"

If you're an average educated & informed voter (or an aspiring immigrant like me) who's angered by these Tea Party shenanigans in this Debt Ceiling drama, don't get outraged. Consider this as a front row ticket to freak show in the name of American Political Bankruptcy.

Poor and middle class people who voted for these tea party hacks, where would you go crying once Ayn Rand's fan boy Ryan starts cutting your Social security, medicare and medicaid benefits? Enjoy the fruits of your labor. Oh btw, keep watching the fox news.

Middle class who voted otherwise, you aren't alone. You've the company of rich people. I know! The average 2 and 20 hedge fund guy, investment bankers, Wall St CEOs are all tired and vexed with these retards in the House.

For a change, I don't have any endless tirade about this. But I've two opinion pieces. One from the Free Markets savior WSJ and another from a successful financial advisor. Both are capitalists, not your average tax and spend liberals whom the wall st dreads most.

Here's WSJ opinion piece
The GOP's Reality Test
These below line sums up the Wall Street's frustration.
....The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.

This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell into GOP Senate nominees

And here's a financial Advisor Joshua M. Brown's outrage in his blog The Reformed Broker
Traitors.
And the only thing worse than an economic dilettante voting idiotically in Congress is when someone who's actually worked on The Street acts like they don't know any better. For shame to the hedge fund managers and finance guys who are providing intellectual cover for the bastards who dare push this nation closer to the cliff's edge!

To Stanley Druckenmiller and the rest of the Oldtimers' Game brain trust, let me say this: Your ideas about missing a Treasury coupon "just to see what would happen" are so dangerous that I fear someone's been tampering with your meds. How is it possible that otherwise intelligent people could reasonably believe that the world's reserve debt instrument should be used for a political gambit? Mr. Druckenmiller (and friends), we agree on the need to get our house cleaned up, just not on your plan of swinging a wrecking ball at it to get the maids' attention. Congrats on your retirement, please don't feel the need to ever offer public comment again.

Sit back, relax and enjoy the freak show (or apocalypse).

Sources:
WSJ
The Reformed Broker

Good looks are a curse

Yes, Good looks are a curse. As per this NY Times profile of Olivia Wilde. Oh wait, there's another NYT profile of yet another good looking woman Brit Marling who has to work extra hard to make her mark in Hollywood. Listen kids, don't aspire a career in Hollywood, if you're even remotely good looking. Or prepare to work very hard to go past an ordinary person.

Here's li'l bit of my personal experience. All doors open for good looking people, either men or women. Period. I work in IT, not a glamorous field by any measure. And I've seen many people, whose good looks and charm gave'em li'l push on their way up on corporate ladder. Trust me, there's no such thing called glass ceiling for these people.

Back to the NYT articles, these are the article Headlines.
Look Past the Beauty, if You Can.
How to Succeed in Hollywood Despite Being Really Beautiful.

There was a time, I was naive and I've this impression that all I read in Newspaper or magazines is objective reporting. Slowly I woke up to fact that there's a profession by name Publicist. Whose job is make sure that his/her client gets enough visibility in all the media. Client could be anybody or anything. A new website, app, artist, athlete, tech entrepreneur, VC et al. So the publicists hired by the agencies of Ms.Wilde and Ms.Marling are behind these articles. This doesn't feel good to me but I don't have any problem with this. No harm whatsoever.

But these attention seeking faux headlines makes me cringe. We're talking about Hollywood, where good looks are a pre-requisite. And when was the last time good looks became liability to any actress. This whole argument sounds preposterous to me. Olivia Wilde's profile itself quotes that her parents are influential journalists with beltway contacts and that's how she got a job in a casting agency. So the family background and good looks which gave her a break early in her career are suddenly a liability?

I like Olivia Wilde, saw her on Bill Maher once and found her very informed about social issues. Haven't seen any movie or TV series starring her. I've no idea who the other lady is. I don't have any beef with magazines profiling these artists, whenever their new movie/memoir/music album comes out. My only problem is with these catchy Headlines, these show business reporters come up with. If this article is all about beauty being a bane, then they should've skipped the photoshopped pic. Nope, that wasn't the case.

Being beautiful is not a liability. It never was and never would be. Media should stop using this overplayed meme. Just imagine how many people would recognize Olivia or the other woman, if they haven't inherited that good gene pool. This is show business, not Financial Engineering or Nuclear Science.

Peace.

Oh, the fourth estate

Few random observations on print and electronic media.

--Right now I'm watching a BMW's paid commercial err...special documentary about BMW on CNBC. I've seen similar programs about Ford, P&G and others. Are these the new Special advertising sections of TV? For these programs who pays who? I mean, would BMW pay for these programs as this is cheap advertising? or would CNBC offers this free slot of time to gain more commercials later.

--Sheryl Sandberg's PR offensive is firing on all cylinders. In the last 2 months I read a cover story of her in BusinessWeek, lengthy profile in Newyorker and heard about her on a morning talk show. Oh well, BusinessInsider also threw her in name for next Treasury Secretary position. What's she up to? Is facebook pumping her image or is this her own PR to show how important she's for facebook. Just another day in the movers and shakers of Social Network and Media Management world, I guess. Surprisingly her equivalent on Google Marissa Mayer is staying away from media.
--In good ol' days, there used to be a Missing white woman syndrome. Now there's Casey Anthony! I don't even know, where to start. Every morning I'll have 5 mins of TV time while tying my shoe laces and I couldn't escape her face at all for the last 3 or 4 weeks. When you come back home, you'll have Nancy Grace and even more crazier women (who makes Nancy Grace look like Katie Couric) calling Casey Anthony names. An apocalyptic music score and mind numbing graphics accompanies. I don't want to diminish the death of that child, but this is a tailor made ratings program for TV channels. An young, attractive white woman weeping on camera, no sane TV guy would loose that ratings chance. CNN Headline News, I get it. It's US Weekly of News channels serving the LCD of audience. But I'm appalled (not shocked) by the fact that abc news paid for her defense to get exclusive rights of her home videos.

How low could the media go.
Oh surprisingly we've an answer. From across the pond. Murdoch's Tabloids have been paying Police and private investigators to hack phone voice-mails of dead people for scoops, get access to tax records through illegal means. Not even the Queen, Royal family, former PM are immune from these criminals. They tried to hack 9/11 victims phones and London Bomb victims phones. They even published about Gordon Brown's son's illness in a tabloid. Here's the kicker, they even hacked phones of the investigators investigating these crimes.

But it all ended on a high note in the last one week. 168 years old tabloid got shut down, David Cameron's ex communications director got arrested, Sith lord dropped the bid for BSkyB. Not a bad week. Honestly, all this news from UK sounded like music to me. I feel the pain of all the common people who got hacked or exposed.

I didn't write anything about Fox News, as it's motives are very obvious. For the uninitiated Fox, Fox News, 20th Century Fox are all controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his family as majority share holders.

Peace.