Saskatchewan Mine Fire - Update #2

According to a press conference in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, five miners are still below the surface. Rescue operations are on-going. Media coverage has been intense. Over 500 sources for a news story in Saskatchewan is something. Timing was perfect for this story to hit it big as Monday morning editors are looking for something to replace the boring Hamas stories. Maybe the news media should host a banquet for the miners once they are all rescued. They could have a prime time special interview session with each miner.

Miners Trapped in Saskatchewan

It seems like we have more miners that are trapped than media companies willing to cover this story. Only 5 related on Google News at this time (6:40pm SST) and only 2 blogs on Google Blog Search. Make that three after this one gets posted. Sometimes the news travels pretty slow around Saskatchewan for some reason or another. Hopefully the miners are all ok and the fire gets put out sooner than later.

Earthquake Rattles Google News

A pretty big earthquake occured today in the Banda Sea in eastern Indonesia. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) the quake was measured at 7.7 on the richter scale but well below the surface. No indications of a tsunami but "officials" claim that it is all clear. It would be nice to have an ocean cam over the area to see for sure though. That being said, the story has jumped into the spotlight just below the Palestinian Election that was won by Hamas. Incredibly, this has become the focus of nearly all news agencies around the world with over 5000 sources covering it. This compares only to Hurricane Katrina as the most covered story in the world so far. Still many have no idea why the general public in Saskatchewan would give a rats ass about it.

Long War: One Source, Is This Real?

Something had to be said after this article popped up on Google News searching the word "war":

WashingtonPost Blog

Does this mean that even the so called "mainstream" news media can say whatever they want on a blog, even if it causes irreversible damage to the entire human population on Earth? Why are only certain blogs being chosen for Google News anyways?

It seems as though the Washington Post has let one slip by the editors. How can they post such an article claiming that an apparently high ranking officer is giving the "War on Terror" a new name. "This generation of servicemembers will be in what we're calling the Long War," Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier this week (William M. Arkin- Washington Post). This tends to suggest the opposite as many educated and informed people in today's world like to give the backwards spin on things as stories get pushed by the "mainstream" media. Hopefully this new war is neither long nor short. Preparing the troops for a 20 year war is propaganda at its worst.

The coming "Short War" makes me more worried than Katrina's cocaine soldiers. Has everyone forgotten what the word co-operation means? In case you were worried about the Earth running out of resources, Saskatchewan is full of everything everyone needs. Sean Paul said," Some got gold & oil & diamonds...," that's us! Don't forget the unlimited amount of energy resources that we have here. It's almost like it's a big secret, well one of our secrets is out now. Another secret that is about to get blown open is the fact that secrets themselves will soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the Internet and Blogs. Let the truth be told and let us all work towards a goal of peace, happiness and fulfillment for all.

These words are on the Internet, thanks to me,

Jared

and blogger.com of course

News Media Excited To Hear From Bin Ladin

Many "major" news media outlets around the world jumped at the chance to post the words of the self proclaimed leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist group, Osama bin Ladin. As many sites give their own spin on this story, it may be important to actually read what was translated and analyze what it all means.

BBC's Osama bin Ladin Transcript

With over 1500 sources following this story, there will likely be more to come on this in the coming days. There has been no indication so far that security measures have been taken in response to this. Hopefully, the Canadian Federal Election does not get disrupted by any actions taken by terrorists trying to follow the words of Osama bin Ladin.

Two Things

Why does Google News not give the option to view stories by the number of sources that cover a particular story? I sometimes doubt that one story is covered by thousands of sources and the next most popular story is covered by 300 sources. I think I would simply like to see constant improvements and upgrades to Google News, otherwise someone else is going to come up with a much better way of providing relevant news coverage. Does anyone else have trouble with the customization window, using Firefox? Opera's browser works very well with Google News but it still has bugs.

Local news. Google please fix your site to accomodate this. Also, why is your Blog Search still not added to the Google home page?

I'm working on putting together a page full of news links so that we all can see a comprehensive list of news sources. I really have to wonder if there really is 4500 news sources. When Huricane Katrina was tops on the news, it broke the 3500 mark so I guess Google had to raise the News Sources number. Pretty soon it will be like McDonald's: Billions and Billions of News Sources! Ok, I've had enough blogging for today...

Haji Stampede

Turning on Google News this afternoon and this is what pops up as the top story:

Aljazeera

There must be a lot more media in that area of world for 1000 sources to cover this story. It is developing and it may be too early to tell for sure but the whole thing doesn't really make sense. This looks like another death toll count as numbers are all over the place. For this many people to die in a stampede just doesn't sound right. This is going to take a few more clicks to figure out what is going on. For now here is a couple more links:

Reuters India

CBC

This is gonna be good...

Are you sick of the news or just so numb that you can't feel anything anymore? Well get ready for this blog. This is play by play coverage of the news games on the Internet. What is "news"? What is propaganda? Where do you draw your line? The owners of media companies do have the option of twisting the news for their own goals but they all have competition. Now blogs are here to influence the way news is distrubuted and handled. We all have the opportunity to blog our own thoughts and opinions. It is a powerful way to influence the way the world operates.

Look at the stories that get the biggest play on the Internet. It is a fantasic measuring tool that has only recently been discovered. If there is search engine out there that can compile stories by numbers of visitors and number of sources carrying it, that might be the next step to take. Fow now, we will choose a story or two from the top stories covered by major networks and follow along.

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