St. Peter’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, has dropped its ban on cellphone and BlackBerry use. Other hospitals in the city have also decided to permit them, but only in hallways, waiting rooms, and cafeterias.
The move follows the recent study findings by the Mayo Clinic that tested cellphones and PDAs from two different carriers with 192 pieces of medical equipment. The study concluded that “when cellular telephones are used in a normal way, no noticeable interference or interactions occurred with the medical devices.”
Microsoft has agreed to buy California-based TellMe Networks, which provides voice-recognition software, for a price said to be close to $800 million US.
The purchase ties into Microsoft Vista’s existing speech recognition feature and future plans for voice-enabled mobile searches. TellMe’s platform is based on open standards like VoiceXML, CCXML, and VoIP.
These guys bug me. I’m not a celebrity, nor do I want to be – mainly because of these scumbags who stalk their subjects.
Jessica Simpson has more photographers than the Prime Minister has staff. Stalking sexpot Lindsay Lohan. There are many examples, and even television and films are echoing this media trend. Here’s some woman trying to get into her car and drive on, while trying not to hit these guys.
Dirt – aired on the F/X channel – is a great example of the lengths photographers will do to get what they want. In one scene, the photographer deliberately cuts his thumb off in a mechanical accident to gain entry to a guarded hospital where he uses a pinhole camera to snap the shots he needs.
It’s consumer spooks.
This show essentially dramatizes the ill-ethics – just as Nip/Tuck did for the plastic surgery biz – of the tabloid industry. It’s not even media, in my opinion. It’s sensationalism that sells movies and souls, and it’s sad. When you view those clips I linked to above – and those are mild family friendly – I ask how do you live that way. It’s one thing to work for something you’ve wanted all your life, to act, to express yourself, be a success and then at the top of your personal confidence, your privacy is gone.
… and God forbid you want some privacy.
You must be trying to hide something.
I know not all paparazzi are arseholes, that it’s part of the packaged Hollywood game and that some celebrities bank on being promoted this way. But it’s still a major safety and privacy issue, because – I believe – it encourages those without the a press pass, job on the line, or heck even a job, that it’s okay to treat celebrities like that, like politicians. They’re not even people, it seems via the paparazzi.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the actor from Brick and the TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun, struck back. See below how these arseholes pretend to justify their actions:
For the record, I didn’t list the more brutal or humiliating actions of the paparazzi because it deserves no propagation of credit.
Ernest Gallo, of Ernest & Julio Gallo Wine, passed away yesterday, a mere three weeks after his half-brother Joe passed. It’s not all bad, he was twelve days short of his 98th birthday.
