PicApp Makes Me Blog Again (and Some Thoughts on the Nobel Prize)

Wow.  It’s like this blog is up-to-the-minute.  We’ve got legal news images, AND EVERYTHING.

Okay, perhaps the “everything” part is missing, but PicApp (http://www.picapp.com/) looks like (from the mere seconds I have used it for) to be a rather useful resource for, what the site calls,

“millions of premium, relevant, fresh and legal images to choose from”.

Which is nice.  This gives me an excuse to blog again which hopefully will be, after all this time, excessively entertaining.  I set the bar high.

Anyhow, it seems I can artfully weave together my discovery of the PicApp site with an item of current affairs which came onto my proverbial radar.  Notice the man in the picture.  No, not that man.  No, not that man either.  The one on the right.  The President.  It seems that just when you thought the Nobel prize couldn’t get any more liberal, they decided to award one to Barack Obama.  The reason can be found on the Nobel Prize website: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/.

So, a good idea?  As much as it doesn’t matter what I think, and as much as I’m certainly left-leaning, politically, it does seem a little like firing the starting pistol, but then halting the race, to award Obama because he said the right things in the pre-race interview.  One would think that significantly more perspective is needed to judge this sort of thing and it’s not as if there is a shortage of people to whom such an award could be legitimately awarded.

There are a couple of counter arguments to that, however.  For a start, it is explicit in the words of the award givers that the award is not for things he hasn’t done yet.  You can argue about whether inspiring hope and strengthening “international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” are actions worthy of an award, but it’s not as if they pretend he has done  a huge number of things (or something earth-shatteringly important) that he has not.  It’s meant to send a message, that perhaps has nothing to do with Obama (though that is perhaps an abuse of the award).  Secondly, whilst the Prize is certainly incredibly prestigious, it is by no means a given that it is somehow a ‘best person in the world’ award that implicitly states that there have been NO GOOD DEEDS OTHER THAN THOSE UNDERTAKEN BY THE WINNER.  (Please feel free to print out those capital letters and put them on a sign for use in impromptu protests.)  There are a whole bunch of eligible people who will continue to be brilliant without the rubber stamp of awesomeness (a phrase soon to be trademarked by the Nobel Foundation) that the Nobel Peace Prize provides.

Having said that though, it does feel strange.  I think @pumpkinshirt, on twitter, put’s it best:

“The committee seems to be awarding the Nobel Prize For Not Being George W. Bush. Obama should respectfully decline.“

and

“Obama and the prize would be much better served if the cmte. had waited until Obama could DO more. Too soon. Counterproductive.“

It’s a good point.  In any event, the fact that an MSNBC online poll (http://www.newsvine.com/_question/2009/10/09/3364945-is-president-obama-deserving-of-the-nobel-peace-prize) had, at time of posting, 62.3% of people disapproving of the award, is somewhat telling.

Meanwhile, I’ve just seen an advert for Michael Moore on “Hannity”.  Even Moore is not enough to make me watch Fox News.

News 2.0: Because yesterday’s newscasts didn’t jump out of the TV and demand your undivided attention

I read an absurd story (here) today about how CNN will use advanced holographic technology to present election night coverage, allowing Obama and McCain strategists to appear to be in a room with Wolf Blitzer, when they are really in two separate cities.  This will either be remarkably cool, or bafflingly pointless.  We will find out.  One thing I do certainly find cool, though, is MSNBC peddling of what it calls ‘Newsware’.  This is not new (it started earlier this year), but today I very briefly tried out the ‘Spectra’ web browser-based news visualiser, and the ‘NewsSkimmer’ news screensaver.  They are both rather impressive, with nifty 3D animations, and, thankfully, a very minimalist and generally well-designed look.  Unfortunately, my 1.67 GHz G4 PowerBook, with 512 MB memory, isn’t fast enough to play the animations smoothly, but its still rather nice.  More info, and free downloads, at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23781733/