Paula Zahn's Divine Proportions

[Undertoad]

How opposite we are Griff: I have CNN on in the background as I write this. If I'm not careful here I'll accidentally resurrect the Xugumad exchange from the other month, but I use it as the modern equivalent of background music. The big value of the electronic media, I believe, is that it gets us information really fast.

CNN varies between incredible news and soap operas. In the same hour, while I watch, I'll learn how the Pentagon is interrogating Al Qaeda prisoners - and then watch a half-hour of the rink rage trial, which is just a non-news soap-opera event.

RIGHT NOW they say that FBI analysis of Richard Reid's shoe bomb shows that it was actually an incredibly sophisticated bomb, containing two different explosive agents. This indicates, they say, that this is evidence that the terror network may be more sophisticated than originally thought who can manufacture explosives beyond the capabilities of airport screening. Now that's information I want to know.

But they follow it with news of the Beamer birth, which is just sentimental fluff.