The Box

When I get the chance I listen to the BBC's world service on NPR. It's just interesting to get a different perspective on world news, one that tends to be more skeptical than the U.S. media. It's also good to get an outside view of how America/Americans are perceived around the world. I was slightly amused by the total amazement of British commentators on the Beeb that McCain picked a woman as his vice-presidential nominee. I mean, yes, the Republican party is more conservative than the Democrats, who nominated a woman for veep decades ago. But still, it's not as if there aren't plenty of prominent Republican women. It was really only a matter of time, and the right political circumstances (like needing a Hail-Mary pass to draw attention, or pandering to embittered Hillary supporters, for instance).

Anyway, the BBC also just has good programming. Like this wacky scheme, in which they've rigged one of those big cargo containers with a GPS tracker, just to see where it goes in the course of a year. Reading the BBC's webpage also lets you enjoy British spelling conventions, like "globalisation", "defence", and of course, "colour". I personally like to use "grey", which is less common stateside, rather than "gray".

So get your head out of just the American media, all of which is owned by like 4 media conglomerates, and see what else is out there. After all, it's a globalized (or globalised) world.