Results tagged “cnn”

Seattle mental health blogger Philip Dawdy is less than impressed with the notion that CNN's Sanjay Gupta could be the nation's next doctor-in-chief. Says Dawdy, "As a reporter, Gupta strikes me as a lightweight outside of neuroscience and neurosurgery, who either gets his information straight from pharma companies and establishment doctors or is too incapable or incurious as a reporter to look for contrary information." And he offers as evidence Gupta claiming that there were no child suicides related to antidepressant use back in 2004. To Dawdy, who can think of four questionable cases prior to the broadcast, that's of a piece with Gupta's inability to see much wrong with Vioxx, which was later taken off the market. Vioxx-maker Merck would be hit by class action suits totaling just under $5 billion.

Dan Savage, on CNN yesterday, debated the Prop 8 debacle with smug asshat Tony Perkins. We really think Savage did a good job arguing with this waste of space.

• The Slog brings the sad news that The Cascade People's Center is set to close after the City Council cut funding. The People's Center has been a bastion for the neighborhood that we once called Cascade before Paul Allen took over the place and decided to call it South Lake Union. The CPC will close its doors on December 31st if it cannot come up with $75,000 in funding.
• Capitol Hill Seattle is excited that CNN decided to show a little love to Seattle and their neighborhood, recommending hill hangouts like the Cha Cha and Elysian Brewery. Even more exciting to all of us neighborhood bloggers, it was one of our very own, Scott of Central District News, who helped CNN with the list.
• Speaking of Central District News, they are recommending you secure your Obama yard signs and such, as the now 'commemorative memorabilia' is being stolen from yards all over to be sold on eBay.

The CDN on CNN? The Central District News blog got a chance to describe Seattle and the neighborhood for CNN; it's a good read--almost as if Scott spent more time on this article than on a typical blog post. (We kid because we love!) Scott suggests a unique tour guide for the CD: "A good way to tour the neighborhood is to load up your iPod with Sir Mix-A-Lot's 'Posse on Broadway' and follow the streets as they're called out in the song. And don't forget to grab a box of delicious Ezell's Fried Chicken -- they say Oprah loves it!" Of course, he also gives pointers on the weather: "Some seasons are wetter than others around here. To guarantee a damp experience, your best bet would be to plan your travels for sometime in the narrow window between late October and the 4th of July."

Are you so, so antsy at this point? Are you clicking F5 F5 F5 on CNN.com while simultaneously instant messaging about the ludicrous statements from McCain supporters you're hearing on NPR? Some polling locations have closed (parts of Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire), and you might as well just close the analysis websites and skip straight forward to what's most important: Is Obama President Yet?

Seattlest, like many of you, has to be at the office today instead of in the living room in front of the TV, which is where we want to be right now. We're following the election news on KUOW/NPR (94.9 FM) and keeping an eye on CNN.com, MSNBC.com, and King County Votes (which also has a helpful Twitter feed). If you're not watching tv today and you're trying to keep up on the news, what sites are you reading/obsessively refreshing?

Despite layoffs at seemingly every other major news outlet, CNN is adding 10 new regional reporters in the next year—including one based in Seattle. CNN is calling their new additions "all-platform journalists" (which sounds creepily sci-fi to us) and they will contribute to both on-air and online content. We can expect our very own Seattle CNN correspondent within the year. The other cities also being added to the CNN rotation? Minneapolis, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, and Columbus, Ohio.

My God, it's beautiful outside. When did that happen? Here we are sneezing and coughing and oozing from every orifice on our face when we look outside and Holy Obamalove, Batman! It's really nice out!

Tonight's sky should be just as active, though not nearly as much of a surprise. The last visible full lunar eclipse until 2010 takes place tonight and, weather permitting, should be in clear view for Seattle. The full eclipse will begin at roughly 7pm and should last nearly 50 minutes. Moon watchers are in for an extra treat, as Saturn should be visible too.

Now that all votes are in, all caucuses adjourned, CNN declaring it all for Obama, here's how the day fared for our Seattlest contributors:

Kim: I tried for about five minutes after Iowa to convince myself I could and would get behind an Obama candidacy. I will vote for whomever earns the Democratic nomination, but I just honestly don’t get what the big deal is about Obama. I’ve been a Hillary gal from the beginning, and that hasn’t changed. The best thing I can say about Obama is that he makes inspiring speeches, that make me feel good about myself in a “I can do it!” sort of way. Like a pep talk before a ballet performance (sorry, yall, never played sports). But, I don’t think that’s enough. I think it’s important to be lifted up, but if you’re then left hanging, you just fall back down. His proposals and plans are either bad, or are copies of Hillary and John Edwards’. I really, really hope he doesn’t get the nomination, because I’m so happy to be excited about an election cycle and to feel optimistic about it; and I think I would hate to lose that feeling of excitement about real long-lasting transformation. I’m sure his supporters will jump on me for that since he’s supposed to be the change candidate, but I’m not buying it. Hillary has great plans, she has alliances and friends on both sides of the aisle (important for getting things through congress) and I don’t doubt for a second that she gets the weight and breadth of everything that comes across a president’s desk. John Edwards looks great on paper, but I just don’t like him.

The oddest thing about watching last night's Iowa caucus coverage along with the Sonics game is that we had one TV tuned to TNT, and one TV tuned to CNN--and Chuck Norris was on the latter one.

Seattlest got the news from a coworker yesterday: an explosion in midtown Manhattan had resulted in a collapsed building (MSNBC); then that no, in fact, it was a transformer that exploded, leaving a nearby building "shaky" (CNN).

POLEMIC: Understated, respectful, sober -- these are words that describe someone else besides Christopher Hitchens, who we suspect would beat you senseless with his shoe if it meant that he could own "iconoclastic."

Quick, while Paris is in jail and the politicians annointed as "official" candidates by CNN and Fox are poking each others' eyes out, let's take a moment to talk about the Farm Bill. (Yeah, right.) Seriously, because you are what you eat, you know. (Yeah, right.)

This is the kind of rescue we like at Seattlest. There's no ambiguity about it--the guy falls, he gets hurt, and a Coast Guard helicopter goes up to 7,000 feet to fetch him.

A special report from national advertising correspondent Pauls Toutonghi

We're still waiting for the verdict: Zune, the "next gen iPod killer," or Zune::Microsoft as albatross::Ancient Mariner.

We watched the CNN special tonight that went behind the scenes at Time magazine and documented the process by which they choose their annual "Person of the Year" award. Those who love to rail against the MSM will be pleased if not flattered by their decision, and no doubt many bloggers and other contributors of "user-generated content" (which should get awarded "Most Overused, Awful Buzz Word of the Year") will rejoice. Many will say it is 2.0 navel-gazing at its worst.

Dammit, do we really have to open up a front of the "War on Christmas" in Seattle? The Port removed a bunch of holiday trees from the airport this weekend ("holiday trees" are evergreens that have been decorated with lights and garland and small hanging ornaments - They're similar to Christmas trees, except holiday trees don't go to heaven when they drop their needles). The holiday trees were removed because a local rabbi sued the Port to get his 8' holiday menorah put up alongside the trees.

Gothamist, among many others, is reporting that a plane has apparently crashed into a building on the upper east side--you can see the exact location on 72nd via Gothamist's Googlemap hack. Currently it is being reported as a helicopter that crashed into the building. You can see pictures at the Gothamist site (national news sites didn't have anything yet, but they've got screen captures from local news up on their site).

Yesterday we learned via the Seattle Times that the Roosevelt pet shelter Animal Talk was broken into and vandalized over the weekend. Almost all the animals were let out of their cages and a number of rodent-type things appeared to have been stepped on or killed by the approximately fifty cats that were also released from cages.

Local novelist Pauls Toutonghi wrote in with his thoughts about the death of Nobel Prize winning author Naghib Mahfouz.

Alan Durning's experiment of severing his family from their car has gotten a good deal of ink from Seattlest, other places, and Seattlest again, not to mention his own experiences recollected at the Sightline blog. Heart-throb news stud Anderson Cooper has jumped in the mix, though, with a segment on his CNN show devoted to "low-car diets."

Seattlest is going to expand its scope a bit. We've already taken on the task of mentioning events in Portland every now and then, but rather than making it an occasional thing, we're formalizing that arrangement. We love it here in the Emerald City, but if you've got to get away, we'll help you out with a destination, something that you just can't get here. We won't keep this exclusive to Portland, but we will try to keep it under a 6 hour drive.

The big news in the music world today revolves around the most rocking of government branches, the Supreme Court, where the justices unanimously voted against Grokster and for the movies/music industry.