You probably heard of the latest stupid craze in America, “The Secret“. It is a book/film that suggests positive thinking to achieve what you want — a book heavily promoted by Oprah. For example, if you want a parking spot here and now, all you have to do is be optimistic about it and visualize it with your head, and voila, it would be there. It’s like having your average 30-year old housewife mastering the power of the String Theory to bend space and time.

Of course, that’s all gibberish. The trend promotes nothing but a modern twist on superstitions!

Personally, I am a pessimist, and this reflects on my review articles (one of the reasons that some of my readers don’t like me). In fact, I often find optimistic people naive. You see, there is a 50-50 chance that a specific bad thing will or won’t happen. I prefer to believe that it will happen, just so when and if it happens, I would be prepared for it and my world won’t collapse. That’s the way I protect myself. The problem with pessimism though is that it can lead to depression. I am often depressed. But at least I am not naive.

Soon enough the big networks will go the way of the dodo if they don’t play well with the new Internet reality. The networks have become difficult to deal with and they piss off viewers easily (especially FOX). Latest proof is the cancellation of Jericho, which was steadily holding second place in the ratings every Wednesday. It’s like they want all shows to be removed if they don’t win No1 position, it’s crazy!

Only ABC tries to do something useful with the internet and so this week they announced that they will offer for free viewing all of their shows in 720p HD format via the web browser. FOX also does something similar.

But the real threat will come for the traditional networks from the TV shows broadcasting exclusively on the Internet(s). The first professional work of that kind is the “Sanctuary“. Check their trailer, it’s pretty impressive. It even features 2 actors from Stargate SG1/Atlantis. Sure, the show looks more like cut scenes from a video game, but it’s a start!

It is indeed a small world. Adam, our webmaster at OSNews, just today he realized that he met Damon Lindeloff (the main creator of ‘Lost’), back in the late ’80s in a summer camp. He even has a picture of him. What were the chances of that?

“When Vince Wadhwani moved to D.C. from San Francisco in 2001, he constantly complained to his girlfriend (now his wife) about the dearth of non-chain store options. Finally, she had enough and told him he had to either stop complaining or do something about it.” Article at Examiner.com.

It’s nice to see my good friend Vince getting some exposure for his nice service. His website, BuyIndie.net, automatically recognizes the place you currently reside (based on the IP address) and suggests independent shops instead of chained businesses. A valuable service for the local economy.