Mass media sub-blime

Thanks to chance of rain, I figure out why I never watch pop TV. Product placement is rampant and expected... e.g. what car they drive, which soda is consumed, but to put it in the dialogue is going a bit too far. I really expected more from a show set in Santa Monica.

Junk adrift

Thanks to the RSS feed from Aquafornia leading me to the LA Times, I finally wound my way to visit Junkcraft. While the site is mildly interesting, mostly from the sense of impending disaster that might confront the operators of Junk as they sail from Long Beach to Hawaii, or wherever the trade winds might blow them.

Take a quick look at the site and then think about this. We all know that there is a big area of the Pacific Ocean that is gathering a floating continent of plastic garbage. You know, all of those plastic duckies that some think it cute to send down our rivers as part of a good cause fund raiser, the plastic buckets left on the beach as families hurry back home, discarded water bottles that find ways down streams until they reach the ocean. At least, we should all know about it because it has been on television news.

It raises this question. Why do we need continued gimics like the voyage of the Junk to make us think, again and again, about what we are doing to this planet? Walt Kelly's Pogo said it best. "We have met the enemy, and they is us."

Remember, in the game of life, Mother Nature bats last.