The Today Show Pisses Me Off...

[second_pancake]

I have a private blog in which I, on many occasions, vent my frustrations over this show, but only my friends ever read it and I think it annoys them more than anything.  So rather than subject them to another bout of, This Is Crap on NBC, I'll share it with you.  Maybe you guys can enlighten me as to why I still tune in when all I end up doing is complaining.

So, my latest gripe is that they've been jumping on the 'Green' bandwagon...which makes me angry in and of itself because as soon as the media starts promoting something, it will fast become a trend and like with all trends, it fades away over time; but part of their initiative is that they've been carpooling.  Ok, so squeezing all of them into a small car and watching them spill coffee on one another is slightly amusing at times, but they've been promoting this like they're so great because they're making this huge effort to get up at 5am every day to do this instead of using individual transporation, i.e. limo/taxi drivers.  No, carpooling is not the problem.  It's their outward and blatant hypocricy. 

For the last month it's been, "Today is going 'Green'" and all the freakin hoop-la over their efforts, and then this morning, Matt makes a bet with Meredith that if his team loses in the SuperBowl, he'll "hire a plane to fly around all of Manhattan...carrying a banner...".  I guess he thinks the twice a week carpool makes up for all the carbon emmissions he'd be putting into the atmosphere by having a plane fly around for no other purpose than to carry a banner???     I really should learn to expect this from them.  Afterall, this is also the show that tells us what we can do to live a less "impactful" life, and then in the very next segment wants us to guess where in the world is Matt Lauer...as he travels around the world by private jet for 2 weeks.  Oh, and let's not forget the lessons they taught us by flying Ann to the Antartic to do a freakin segment on penguins.  If you looked closely at the bottom of the pictures/video clips they were showing, credit was given to National Geographic and they referenced the IMAX film that they were taken from.  So, they flew someone to Antartica so they could stand there and play video bites from a movie that we could just go a few miles down the road to see???  To quote John Stossel, GIVE ME A BREAK!

[gatorback]

I'm so sorry.  Maybe this will comfort you.  I've been waiting since the whole middle of January to see the new espisodes of Lost...you know I'm addicted to it now.  Well, in the meantime, I got hooked on Celebrity Apprentice.  Guess what.  I find out today they go head on to each other as far as I can tell.   

Apparently I'm suffering from LVCA Syndrom.  "Lost versus Celebrity Apprentice Syndom."  That's where you're stuck in Lost but you can't leave CA.  It's not pretty.     

[Ocklawaha]

Second Pancake... Gatorback... ya'll just relax, they keep laughing at my Zeppelin posts. They have been laughing at my "silly tourist trolley idea" for 30 years too... Now the laughing is fading away!

Look up Zeppelin Aircraft. They're Baaaaaaaaaaaack!

Fuelish dreams? Well that trans-Atlantic Zeppelin carrying 20 semi containers and/or passengers may take a full day and night to get here, but at the size of the Graf Zeppelin or the Los Angeles, it would burn as much fuel as a 747 uses going from the gate to the end of the runway at JIA! No lie!

Ocklawaha

[gradco2004]

You should Tivo CA on one tv, and watch Lost live in HD on another tv. That's what I'd do!

[gatorback]

I'm also in Tivo Hell! My Tivo BROKE!!!!!!! 

[stephenc]

Or just dvr both then watch em later. NO COMMERCIALS!!!

[gatorback]

wait:  how long will it take ABC.com to put up the new LOST?

[stephenc]

I think all the channels are pretty good at putting them on the next day.

[second_pancake]

Zeppelins???  Really??  So, Ock, are you saying I shouldn't give up on my dream of a truely green network television show?  That one day, Matt will ride his bike to work or take the train, and play his silly little guessing game while hanging out at Dean and Deluca next door?  And instead of sending psuedo-anchor people to the ends of the earth, they will just show us pictures provided by the people who live and work there?  Maybe one day...one day

Btw, TiVO sucks.  I'm telling you, an all-in-one computer media center is the way to go. Oh, and I tried to watch CA the other week and I literally became ill.  Gene Simmons is one whacked-out dude.  Seriously, he needs to be institutionalized alongside Britney Spears then she could see what crazy really looks like and maybe snap out of her current mental state.

[Ocklawaha]

Want to have some fun looking at the future? check out this website...

http://www.zeppelin-nt.de/

A little globe appears on the page, above the globe the word sprache "Language" will appear, click over ENGLISH... unless you want it in der fatherland tounge.

BTW, they have cool sport shirts and stuff too!

Ocklawaha

[gatorback]

how do they get them to float?  helium? aren't we running out of helium?  I don't think they'll use hydrogen...ore   Will they be hot hare  ballon's?  har har

[hank]

Not to completely commandeer this post or anything, but... yeah Ockl., what the heck (other than the horrifying airborne inferno that brought and end to the Hindenburg) pushed zeppelin travel so far out of consideration as a mode of transportation!?  OK, its slow and maybe only carries a few people at a time but man, that would be a great way to get around!  I imagine that modern advances would vastly improve upon the old models. Cruising quietly at a moderate altitude would afford excellent views and would be a great way to spend a day.  With everything going wireless, why couldn't folks just conduct their 4 hour meetings on one of those babies on the way to the convention, corporate headquarters, branch compound, etc.  The way air travel has begun to suck lately, anything but cramming into one of those sardine missles would be a huge improvement.

If only people could SLOW THE FRIG DOWN and be happy with getting somewhere in a moderate amount of time!

[second_pancake]

Back on topic people...

So, they actually did it.  They actually flew a plane around Manhattan with a damned banner.  Meredith lost so it said something like, Matt Rules and Meredith Drools.  How freakin precious

Ok, so let's say the plane was a Cessna.  I have no idea what model, but based on what's generally used for this type of dumbass publicity stunt, it burns anywhere from 9 - 10.5 gallons of fuel per hour and we know the plane was up in the air for at least an hour (the Today show is a 2 hour program).  I've looked everywhere to find something to calculate the CO2 emmissions produced for a prop, single-engine general aviation plane based on kg of fuel burned per hour, but alas nothing was definitive and centered mostly around passenger planes.  So, my assesment is not technical, but still has the same conclusions.  Flying a plane around Manhattan for an hour for no purpose other than drawing attention to yourself = nothing good for the environment.  Factor in the amount of oil used to produce the plastic banner they used that will only end up in a garbage dump and you have an equally apalling impact to our environment.  Yeah, the "today show is going green", my ass.

[gatorback]

you are killing me....or rather The Today Show Is Killing Mother Earth?  I'm sorry but NBC has a lot to do with big oil obviously; however, one could look at it this way.  That plan flying around Manhattan Island for no apparent reason probably got people thinking about 9/11 and may have brought back fear, confusion and panic.  In this post 9/11 era we all need to unit and preserve this climate of fear.  Americans are at their best when they are in a state of unrelenting fear.  Look how we invaded a country, murdered a dictator, and brought around huge economic swings including the best ever run up in the stock market, following by a housing bust.  Maybe NBC is saying we cant go post-post 9/11.