Captains Log Day 55 News Weather and Sports

Lt Col  (*&33%2@

Commander of the Research vessel Fuel Hunter X878

Captain's Log 

Our 1st wave scouts studied all available electronic signals as we explored the solar system.  Approaching this planet, (the 3rd of 15 in this solar system), our main source source of information about the life-forms was gleaned from hacking into primitive orbiting satellites. 

Upon landing and subsequent surveillance, we found ourselves unprepared for the diversity of tribal behavior, dress and cultural complexity that is not explained reflected in their dominant broadcast media, which they call TV.    

The video content of information broadcast is what they call "News, Weather and Sports"  

The inhabitants of Earth have no control over their atmosphere and thus are highly exposed to unexpected weather extremes.  

"Sports" covers a gamut of activities that generally have no practical purpose. They call them "games."  Games range from tossing a ball back and forth on a beach to individual combat to team contests to racing machines to jumping out of aircraft at high altitudes to enjoy the fall. Or, hitting  a small ball into a hole in the grass.

News.  "You heard it here first!" they keep saying.  What the frell is so great about being the first one to report a half story.  What's the frelling hurry? why not get the facts and report something useful instead of wasting people's time?  The so-called News is about three things:

• Disasters 
• Things to be afraid of 
• Entertainers

  Apparently, many citizens tune-in to a favorite station regularly every day to see video of other people being bad to each other and to animals.  The vast majority of news content is about disasters.  Train crashes, fires, robberies, murders, floods, storms, earthquakes, wars.   Every segment includes the many dangers that humans encounter in everyday life: poisoned water, exploding gas mains, new diseases, escaped maniacs, terror plots.

 It is unclear why there are so many separate stations broadcasting in the same language.  The content is generally the same mix of disasters and things to be afraid of.  There is a lot of interest in what famous people are doing and who they are doing it to/with.  Then there are a lot of shows with 4 or 5 people all talking at the same time.

As I have said, humans are peculiar.  It's hard to find meaning in their behavior from a logical standpoint.