Cool wearable technology

I don't usually blog about new technologies but this one had me cheering. Definitely worth your 8 minutes to watch..

Violence, violence, violence

I'm a huge fan of 24, so believe me when I say I'm not judging anyone with this post. I'm just concerned. My TV watching habits aren't as controlled as you DVR-ers who record everything and watch what you want, when you want. I usually end up taking in an hour, maybe two, of whatever is on when I have time for TV.

Last night, between 24 and Medium, in 2 hours I saw 2 count 'em 2 people get their throat slit, one was a young girl. I saw a stabbing. I saw lots of people get shot, one was an innocent man, at point blank, in the head. I saw the gooey remains of an innocent family that had been dissolved by acid in an industrial kitchen so the killer could hide the fact that he had kidnapped their teen daughter for a sex toy.


Uh, dude.



There are a myriad of crime shows on TV, and they try to one-up each other, and even themselves, with new, twisted, even-grosser-than-last-week violence. I've heard people say that TV is a reflection of reality. Is that true? Do you agree with that?

Last year Camila and I spent 3 days in Rome, walking the grounds of what was once the greatest and bloodiest empires in the world. The theme that kept coming up in discussions with tour guides and literature, was the insane blood-lust of the people. They gave us gladiators and the Colosseum. I remember being appalled at some of the stories we heard, wondering what it takes for a civilization to crave that kind of violence.

Then last night, after 2 hours of television, I asked myself how much different we are from them. Oh sure, we just watch fake murder, rape, torture, you-name-it on TV. We wouldn't ever be so de-sensitized to actually do those things.

Right?


Perhaps not individually. But when you consider our society as a whole, the answer changes.

For example, moments after Medium ended, I caught the 30-second intro to the nightly news before turning off the TV and heading to bed. Guess what? Top stories were about, you guessed it: rape, murder, a gang-beating of a girl by other girls, a crack-mother killed her daughter. Two guys caught for murdering an elderly man in his home for money. Another sex offender violated parole by exposing himself to some school kids. All right here in Portland.


So even though I'm not going to go melt a family and steal their daughter for a sex toy, I live in and walk the streets of a society that seems to be keeping pace with the level of violence on TV.

THAT folks, is my cause for concern.