Okay, this may be old news by now for many of you but I have a little something to add to the conversation. What conversation you ask? Well it's more bickering than conversing actually. From the moment YouTube increased the quality of their website by implementing a widescreen player and doing away with the old school 4:3 player, YouTube users who can't get with the times have been blogging their hearts out with disgust. Me, I just don't get why anyone would be disgusted with YouTube for actually increasing the quality of their website. They didn't remove any features from the site. It seems that most of these die hard users who can't get with the times are most disgusted with the 2 black rectangles bordering their 4:3 videos. Why is that a problem? Once again, this does nothing to your original video. Just ignore it.
From a business perspective, this was a much needed enhancement for YouTube. What some people don't realise is that YouTube has yet to start making profits for Google who bought it for US$1.65 billion. With the upgrade to High Definition video, they can now do serious business with movie studios and television studios to try and get some profitable content on their site. You don't really think that a transsexual crying into a camera for his/her pop idol hero was paying the bill for the massive bandwidth and server costs over at YouTube right?
Also, with websites like Hulu already distributing TV Shows and movies online in High Definition, YouTube was starting to lose viewers who are only interested in watching TV Shows that they may have missed the night before. People fail to realise that a huge percentage of video views on YouTube go to illegally uploaded content(TV shows, Anime and movies) which are usually taken down within minutes of being uploaded.
Final Thought
The YouTube Partner Programme was YouTube's first real attempt at monetising the site. If you are a "Partner" or you are familiar with how it works, you also know it's not really that profitable from the user's standpoint or Google's standpoint.
For YouTube to start turning a profit for Google, they need to sign some more deals with the Hollywood studios and maybe even get some exclusive content from the studios. Viral videos will never be able to pay the bills or even be able to be a good business model. They are too unpredictable and their spotlight dims quickly in many cases. YouTube in High Definition is definitely a step in the right direction for both YouTube and its users.
Without a doubt, most of Barack Obama's success should be attributed to the internet. He was the only candidate who made such extensive use of social networks online. He made a strong presence on social networking sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Myspace, Facebook and even created his own over at his website. Now that he is the President-elect I am hearing a lot of people saying that he should no longer have a presence online. How ridiculous is that? The American people voted for the candidate that best represented progressive change and it would be a shame if said candidate stops using the internet which has become one of the most important tools for communication in recent history.
I made a joke a few weeks ago on Twitter saying that Barack Obama has abandoned the social networking service. I honestly thought that he was just taking a well deserved break after winning the election. Although we all know that he wasn't the person actually typing those tweets. It gave you a sense of community, knowing that you were getting instantaneous updates about news on the campaign trail. In my opinion, this is something I would love to have from the President of the United States, especially because of the numerous problems this country is facing at the moment.
After being elected, Barack didn't totally disappear off the face of the internet. He created a new transition website, www.change.gov to inform people of who and what to expect on January 20th. A very good idea in my opinion. He also started to make weekly radio addresses to the nation which he also uploads to YouTube. Another genius idea if you asked me. When was the last time you listened to President Bush's weekly radio address? I wasn't even aware that he had one. To be honest, I wasn't even aware that he was a real person until he did something silly to a foreign leader and made America the laughing stock of the world once again. Barack has vowed to continue posting his weekly radio addresses on the internet via YouTube once he becomes President. I am looking forward to it.
Final Thoughts
I am sick and tired of hearing people say that the President using Twitter and other social networks is not "presidential". This same argument was made by similar narrow minded people when the president started making radio addresses and television addresses. Get with the times. The economy is tanking. There is no room left for conservatism at the moment. You have lost sight of who the President is. He is your employee and you should be informed of every decision he makes or more importantly, is about to make.
If you believe Barack should govern the way he campaigned, you should NOT be against the use of social networks to make the government more transparent. This is the reason he won the Presidency. He made the American people a part of his campaign, unlike a certain other candidate I don't think I need to name.
This entire Prop 8 issue has spiralled way out of control. So much misinformation and lack of information. Let's start with what Prop 8 actually is shall we?
"Proposition 8 was a California State ballot proposition that amended the state Constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. It overrode a decision of the California Supreme Court from earlier in the year, In re Marriage Cases, that had recognized same-sex marriage in California as a fundamental right by overturning the California Defense of Marriage Act. The official ballot title language for Proposition 8 was "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry." The entirety of the text to be added to the constitution is: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." The proposition did not address the issue of Domestic partnership in California nor any similarities or differences which might exist between that institution and marriage." - excerpt from Wikipedia
Now, onto the aftermath of the passing of this ballot.
Americans of African descent are the voting bloc to be most blamed for the passing of this ballot.
This is untrue. The statistics being thrown around by the media claims that 70% of African descented voters in California voted to have this law passed. I have a few problems with this statistic. Why is it available? Isn't your vote supposed to be private and not public record. The question you should be asking is, who got these statistics and from where did they get it? I am not aware of polling stations providing a questionnaire on who and what you voted for after you stepped out of the voting booth. I might be wrong though. Take a closer look at what I said before.
"...70% of African descent American voters in California voted to have this law passed."
How does that translate into this?
"Americans of African descent are the voting bloc to be most blamed for the passing of this ballot."
In the first statement which has been said in numerous ways across the airwaves, they conveniently leave out some important information. The percentage of the California population that is of African descent.
According to the 2006 ACS Estimates, California's population is:
* 58.9% White American including Hispanic
* 43% White Non-Hispanic
* 35.9% are Hispanic or Latino (of any race)
* 12.3% Asian American
* 6.2% Black or African American
* 3.3% mixed
* 0.7% American Indian
Do you see what I see? 6.2% of the population is of African descent. 70% of the African descent population in California's entire population doesn't even make up for a solid 5% of the entire population. And keep in mind, I haven't taken out any percentage points for the non-voters in the community.
The media has once again manufactured a story to sell some advertising space and time. As I keep telling people, race and beef draws crowds, so all forms of entertainment makes good use of it. The news media is no different. It's all entertainment.
The Mormon Money Machine
Another group of people being blamed for the passing of this ballot are the Mormons. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called on California Mormons to donate their time and money to the campaign for Proposition 8. This seems wrong but it isn't unconstitutional. As much as I disagree with their goals, they aren't in the wrong legally. Morally, that's another issue.
Final Thoughts
Marriage, be it between a gay couple or a traditional heterosexual couple, should have never been put on the ballots for anyone to vote on. All gay people want is the same rights given to heterosexual couples and they shouldn't have to fight for it in America. Thanksgiving is just days away. Do I really need to whip out my pilgrim stories? As I said in a video I uploaded to YouTube a few months ago, there are 2 forms of marriage. The Religious Marriage and the Government Marriage. The 2 normally go hand in hand here in America and it shouldn't since this is not a Theocracy.
It's been 2 weeks now since Senator Barack Obama was elected to be the 44th President of the United States of America and even more significantly the first U.S. President of African descent. I'd be telling a lie if I said this historical achievement had sunken in already for me. This isn't because of shock. To best explain the feeling I have about this historical achievement I have to quote my mother, her parents, numerous school teachers and many other adults who shaped me into the person that I am today.
"You will appreciate it more if you have to work for it"
When I was a child I would turn to the adult bestowing these words of wisdom upon me and say,
"Why!?"
If common sense didn't set in at the right age, this historical election period would have answered that question for me easily. I simply can't appreciate President-elect Obama's victory for all its worth because he obviously didn't have to work hard for it, especially in the home stretch. John McCain stopped just short of spoon feeding him the victory. Some might even say that McCain wanted to see a black man in office more than the black man himself.
McCain's entire campaign seemed to be a bad joke from some other dimension.
-Sarah Palin
-"That one"
-Joe The Plumber
-Suspending his campaign to deal with the economic crisis(weeks earlier he was proudly saying that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong")
...and the list goes on.
McCain might as well have filled a spoon with victory and told Obama, "open up for the choo choo train". If this wasn't the worst ran Presidential Campaign in U.S. history, I'm afraid to even ask what was. And, in contrast to the joke that John McCain called a campaign, Barack Obama ran the best campaign possible with the tools he had to work with. His campaign manager, David Plouffe, set a precedent in how future campaigns should be ran if you even want to contend for the presidency. The campaigns of this election season pitted the absolute best campaign against the absolute worst campaign.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that Barack Obama won the election. Not only because of the historical aspect, but because he is the most progressive person willing to take the job and that's what this country and to a greater extent, this world needs right now. I'm just not as happy about the historical aspect of his election as I should be, because it feels like it was handed to him and he didn't have to exert much effort as he did.
Final Thoughts
America electing it's first black president did not put an end to racism. It just showed that the majority of Americans used their brains during this election and chose the best candidate running for the job. When America votes in a dumb black man to the office of President of the U.S., then we can start talking about the end of racism in America. Don't blame me for setting the bar so high. Blame the people that voted George Bush into office twice. readmore »»
