I stopped watching TV a few years ago because I couldn’t hear it and am now slowly dragging myself back into the habit. TV shows and sports events are all captioned, and sometimes I get to see some pretty funny stuff (see above from the internet) but, oddly, many commercials are not CC. This is strange to me because most deaf folks have money to spend. If you are a business, it makes sense to use all available tools to get your product name out to the widest available audience.

On this fine Sunday morning, I channel-surfed for an hour and made a short list of commercials with and without captioning.

Some notes:

1. You do not want to read the captioning for drug commercials. The side effects are horrifying.

2. Harry Reid is running for re-election as Nevada’s senior U.S. senator and his commercials are CC. The commercials for his two opponents, Sharron Angle and Sue Lowden, are not closed captioned. Nevada gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval doesn’t have closed captioning, either.

3. For purposes of full disclosure, the “*” below indicates I am a customer. Also, I voted for Reid in past, I don’t remember if I voted for Sandoval when he ran for Nevada Attorney General in 2002, and Angle/Lowden have not appeared in races on my ballot.

These commercials were not closed captioned (alphabetically):
Assurant Health (health insurance)
Beezid.com
Brain Sandoval (Candidate for NV Governor)
Charter Communications
Chemistry.com
DirectTV
DishTV*
EAS Nutrition
ESPN World Cup Soccer
Fox Soccer
Franklin Templeton Investments
Gamefly.com
George Foreman Grills
IHOP*
Jared’s Jewelers
Long John Silver
Metlife
Purina Beneful
Restasis (drugs)
Sharron Angle (PAC Commerical; NV Candidate for U.S. Senate)
Stacy’s Pita Chips
Sue Lowden (NV Candidate for U.S. Senate)
Texas (tourism agency)
WEtv.com commercials
Zappos.com

These commercials were closed captioned (alphabetically):
1-800-Contacts
Bayer
Cheerios*
Cheetos
Coolmint Icebreakers*
Dial NutriSkin
Harry Reid (NV Candidate for US Senate)
Kodak Printers
Lipitor (drugs)
Neutrogina
Totini’s Pizza
Yoplait*

From the Boston Herald via Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun:

There’s been much debate about the slow death of newspapers, the nails of the coffin coming from the easy access to information via the internet. Many newspapers made the leap and here’s a case in point.

This morning’s San Francisco Chronicle on Kindle contained 185 articles, with thirty in the Sporting Green alone. It’s a rare day when there are less than fifty articles in the daily edition.

The subscription through Amazon is $5.00 a month.

There are no advertisements at all, though I suspect that will end someday.

A hardcopy daily edition outside of the Bay Area is $1 except for Sunday ($2.50, I think).

Newspapers that do not adjust their business models to this electronic reality should go out of business because the refusal to use available technology means they are reporting yesterday’s old news and that is a failure of their fundamental mission.

- 30 -

Beyond irritated at this cold or flu or whatever that’s got me on the disabled list. Will spare you the detail of the yuckiness but the fun part is my legs are trying to convince the rest of the body that it’s time to go outside and everything else is having none of that. As a timekiller, let’s peruse the headlines.

Much e-ink has been spilled on the Michael Vick thing and almost every printed opinion has a dog disclaimer: “I love the puppies.” Have yet to read an article where an author says he/she could live with or without them, so why waste our time with the disclaimer? Be original and say you hate the furry little maggots. (By the way, I love the puppies.)

(more…)

From the News of the Weird weekly digest:

After languishing for two years in the Irish legislature, the Nuclear Test Ban Bill of 2006 has recently been rethought and refurbished, according to a June report in the Irish Independent. Originally, the bill codified the United Nations Test Ban Treaty, adding some provisions specific to Ireland. Among those additions was the punishment for anyone detonating a nuclear weapon in Ireland: up to 12 months in jail and/or a fine of up to 5,000 euros [then, around $6,500], along with language that might even allow a person found guilty to apply for first-offense probation. The proposed punishment this time is expected to be considerably harsher. [Irish Independent, 6-27-08]