Now picture this. A family of four comes in to a coffee shop, buys its lunch and sits down to eat. During their meal no one speaks. No one looks up. They jam fast food in to their mouths, while playing on handheld devices, sending messages, listening to I-tunes and surfing the Net.

They leave the restaurant and the kids have to be driven back to school. Dad fumbles with his cell phone while sipping his coffee. Mom checks her Facebook account and the kids in the backseat are texting to their friends. The kids get dropped off at school, and the parents go back to work. Hardly a word was spoken during the lunch hour. This pattern is repeated millions of times every day in different ways all around the world.

We are becoming a dysfunctional society. We are not using our social skills; people are not engaging one another as they should be and our children’s intellect is not being developed.

Our lives are being controlled, and are being driven by technology of all kinds. Computers were invented to assist us, not to take over our minds and teach us how to think.

You cannot put a child in a room with a computer and expect the child to learn to read. Sure the computer will be a great aid for learning if used responsibly, but as a society we are letting the technology control us.

To cite one example, consider Facebook. Intelligence authorities love it by the way because people are entering personal information about themselves all the time, and then they present it on a platter. Why use ‘information officers’ to collect information when people will provide all kinds of information about themselves for free?

Some people actually live their lives on Facebook. They use Facebook as a hub to start their day, and from there play an endless assortment of games, answer messages, post articles, chat, reply to moves, etc. It’s amazing what you can do. You can never have enough time on Facebook because you can always look for new ‘friends’ and there’s always new games to play or more photos to post.

However, there a few things that Facebook cannot do. It cannot replace face to face contact and interaction. It cannot replace people discussing ideas, problem solving, teambuilding and coming up with solutions, at a time in our history when fresh ideas and forward thinking are really needed.

One of the paradoxes of Internet use in general, is that while there is virtually an unlimited wealth of information and so many topics to explore, that focusing on a single subject becomes almost impossible. You can’t surf forever. Sooner or later you have to consolidate your thoughts or you keep drifting.

I’m not suggesting that there is a quick fix here. Viacom, Disney, Apple, Microsoft and all of the other big corporations control the content. We are being carefully groomed, ‘dumbed down’ and brainwashed and the majority of us don’t see a problem with that.

Remember the words of Marshal McLuhan:

“The Medium is the Message.”

Society’s values and ways of doing things are changing drastically because of the technology, but these changes should not be automatically endorsed.

They need to be critiqued and challenged in every way possible.

CFN

I’m sure Oreo’s ad agency is loving it.   It’s an awesome ad and millions have seen it and are talking about their cookies.    And look at that image, the safe and security of mom, the act of breast feeding which is one of  the most healthy sources of nourishment connected to their product.

Smart ad.  Smart roll out.  How sad is it that they could never use it here in North America?

Of course with Social Networking this image has gone viral although in most media the nipple has been covered with a box or image and I do know we’ll probably end up with emails or comments about us showing it in the raw, but really…. in an age with ultra violent video games, music lyrics, and Jersey Shore on TV are we really all that afraid and offended by a lactating nipple?

Jamie Gilcig – Editor – The Cornwall Free News

(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of this site, their staff, or sponsors.)

CFN – Those are the top ten stories you were reading Monday April 16, 2012 on The Cornwall Free News.

It’s wild how our Cornwall traffic has exploded of late.  We now are reaching over 32% of our traffic locally!  87% of our Traffic comes from Canada.  No third world call centres pumping up our numbers!

Regional Non Pass Through Traffic Canadian Alexa Rankings for the last 90 Days  *

1) The Cornwall Free News

2) Standard Free Holder

3) Kingston Whig Standard

4) The Local Seeker

5) Brockville Recorder & Times

6) Cornwall Seaway News

7)  The Cornwall Daily (what’s up with them?  The Corus radio website has sunk from 3rd to a distant last since Bill Kingston took over as News Director with an all time low ranking of 26,700 with a 50% plunge in web traffic in one month and 40% plunge over the last three?

Top 20 Cities for the Last 30 Days

1) Cornwall

2) Ottawa

3) Toronto

4) Montreal

5) Kingston

6) London ON

7) Prescott

8.) Calgary

9) Edmonton

10) Brockville

11) Seattle

12) Vancouver

13) Winnipeg

14) Halifax

15) Morrisburg

16) Ste. Augustine Florida (hi snowbirds!)

17) Ann Arbor Michigan

18) Hamilton

19) New York NY

20) Sudbury

In the past 30 days you’ve averaged nearly 3.5 pages per visit!  Nearly 60% of our viewers are return viewers too!  Our Bounce Rate is only 26.95% as more of you are checking out our other stories.

24% of you visit CFN over 26 times per month!

Nearly 15% of you are viewing us on a mobile device, nearly 80% of which are Apple products such as an iPhone, iPad, or iPod.

We saw a surge in our Female traffic over the last 30 days.

We’re excited btw, to be a sponsor for The Seaway Lion’s Club Rib Fest Event taking place July 27-29 in Lamoureux Park!    No balloons but BBQ Ribs do it for me every time!

Yet another reason to visit the most happening and evolving community in Eastern Ontario this summer!

We’re working on so much right now I’m not going to even bother!

Seaway Radio returns in September.  If you wish to be a sponsor or have a programming idea you want to share with the world email us at info@cornwallfreenews.com

And to promote your business, service, product, or organization on the number ranked Online Media site in Eastern Ontario call our hotline today or one of our Media Consultants below!

Online media is your best way to share your message with more options than in any other media source!

Call Don or Shari today to find out more.

* Alexa.com is an Amazon owned company that measures web traffic.  Over one million people use the Alexa toolbar which gives a far larger and consistent sampling that those taken in other media which can use samplings as low as in the hundreds over short periods of time.

]]> http://cornwallfreenews.com/2012/04/cornwall-free-news-still-number-one-online-in-eastern-ontario-by-the-numbers-for-the-last-30-days-april-17-2012/feed/ 0 http://cornwallfreenews.com/2012/03/dear-apple-how-about-kicking-back-something-to-the-customers-that-gave-you-97-billion-dollars-to-spend-march-20-2012/ http://cornwallfreenews.com/2012/03/dear-apple-how-about-kicking-back-something-to-the-customers-that-gave-you-97-billion-dollars-to-spend-march-20-2012/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:13:09 +0000 admin http://cornwallfreenews.com/?p=34403 CFN – Apple is in the news for issuing a dividend for the first time since the 90′s and announcing a share buy back program as it’s sitting on a cash egg of over $90 BILLION dollars!

The company is also set according to media reports pull in as much over the next four quarters which has the share price hovering around the $600 mark.

That’s lovely for Apple stake holders, share holders, employees that are paid with stock options and the company itself, but what about consumers that are the chief reason why the company is in such good shape?

Of course good products that are well marketed by well run companies lead to these types of situations, but why not kick some back to the consumer?

Why not do a one day price roll down?   Or for all current clients of Apple products get a credit for future purchases or for apps or products via iTunes?

At what point does it make sense for a humongous company like Apple to show some love back to the real people that put the cash in their stash?

You can post your comments below and here is what I still think is one of the most mind blowing  TV commercials ever shot.

Bob "Vienna Sausage" Peters - Economic Development - Cornwall Ontario

CFN –  Cornwall Ontario fascinates me.  It’s part Twin Peaks; part Peyton Place, and full bore Cornwall.   Since founding the Cornwall Free News nearly three years ago the person I have dealt with the most has been Mr. Bob “Vienna Sausage” Peters with the Economic destruction Development department.

Mr. Peters was the author of the report to council; voted in 6-3, that essentially has started the City on a slippery slope; on how it’s perceived by the public online.

At first it was Online Anonymity that was the issue; but deep down it’s more about being highly thin skinned; like say a possum…

Mr. Peters wrote the following in his report which was signed off by his boss; Cornwall Ontario’s Million Dollar Man, CAO Paul Fitzpatrick.

A review of local news websites show that only two allow anonymous posts: the Standard-Freeholderand the Cornwall Free News. Both sites have some moderation of comments, but a review of activity over the past several months have led staff to concur with the generalized assessment of the practice by the American Journalism Review: “Comment sections are often packed with profanity, and vicious personal attacks.”

We contacted the mayor; council, and of course Mr. Fitzpatrick and told them straight out.  You can’t repeat lies about a local business; especially if you aren’t going to allow us to speak before council to repudiate them.

See Syd Cuss & Swear

This was not only refused, but of course resulted in being commented on at council; picked up by the CBC and other media.    As you can imagine as we have always been moderated, and extremely RARELY as opposed to OFTEN have any profanity or vicious personal attacks on CFN this was shocking.

But the City’s new online position posed another very interesting question.  What about their Facebook page?    It had zero pre-moderation and as any facebook user can tell you there is quite a bit of profanity and attacks.

It also resulted in Mr. Peters and his sidekick Kevin Lajoie spending countless city hours at the taxpayer’s expense moderating the facebook page; which at the end is a city tool and therefore falls under usage similar to how City Hall would be.

See “some” of the elected officials and city management aren’t perfect either like the rest of us.  Some of them have funny notions as Councilor Grant had in the video below.

Cronyism and Bullying are not rarities to how business is done down at City Hall in Cornwall; nor unique in the world.  Here is Councilor Carr responding to a polite media question from yours truly on the mural covering the empty pit on the Corner of Pitt & Second that Heart of the City spent a minimum of $12,000 on and that the owners of the land didn’t have to pay a penny for.

Today Kevin Lajoie posted that the city has decided to not allow users to post subjects any further.  He and Mr. Peters had been deleting comments, posts, and even quotes in the name of their terms of service which of course had nothing to do with Facebook’s terms of service.

One local lawyer last week stated that it was a gross charter of Canada violation for Messer’s Peters and Lajoie  to behave in this manner in such a heavy handed manner.  Some people’s posts would be removed and some not for the same alleged infraction.

One long thread attacking this scribbler was allowed for days.   It was all frankly; embarrassing for the City of Cornwall and we residents and business people.

What the City now has is a Facebook page where they only can post something and they pick and choose which comments to allow.

Those actions of gross censorship and manipulation of information to the public so outraged a portion of their Facebook users that a new page was created, and has had over 700 people join in less than 10 hours as of this printing.

It is now the fourth spin off page as the public reacts strongly condemning Mr. Peters actions.

You can find that group by following this LINK to Facebook. .

Here are some quotes remaining on the City’s Facebook page (many have been deleted as the city has now added two more admins)

JpVee Desaulniers I agree whether comments were rude or not the original post wasnt and as fire attacking moon she simply started she was disgusted and wouldn’t be back as a resident of Cornwall these are the types of things as well as events that I personally would like to know I urge someone to create a new group too in which the truth can be spoken about Cornwall good bad and ugly without having to ask someone if its ok to post the truth

more

Chris Mellon thanks Corey Roachi requested to join this group was BS to begin with! this group is nothing but fake they wanna post all the positive but what about the negative that they fail to tell us about this town????? The admins are trying to portray this city as though nothing ever goes wrong, nothing is bad here when in fact there is alot of stuff needing to be fixed here! Like our medical care that ive seen NUMEROUS people post about but all post get deleted! It almost seems as though they are trying to hide something!

more

Cory N Ashly I think the city is AWESOME, I think the ppl trying to “run” it are in over their heads! HAVE FUN withh this! I know the media will!!

Steph Beaudette ok i understand what your saying Paul, but what about the people who are wanting to move their families here and want to know everything they can about Cornwall? Are we gunna give them false views that Cornwall is the perfect place in the world where nothing ever goes wrong? I love Cornwall personally but there is a lot of issues here that need to be resolved! Just like every other city!

David Jans Not able to post anymore? Depending on your own view of the purpose of this group, it’s value can vary quite a bit but for me and probably hundreds, if not thousands of members, this group just lost pretty much all of it’s value.

Kevin Coleman Its Censorship and everyone should be entitled to oppinions. Cornwall is famous fo an elite group controlling everything. for example

Ryan Lalonde When u put a lock on the group like this it looses way to much, when people cant post and find help for employment and many other topics i know when i posted for employment it was a big help , oh well just another thing that Cornwall should really review there policy’s on.

The internet really frightens a lot of people.   I guess in some ways it should as the flow of information can be lightning fast and ripe for opportunities for inaccuracies to be spread like wildfire.  With the median age of the mayor, Council, and the CAO hovering near where Mr. Harper wants to move retirement age for Canadians it’s understandable; especially when some of them don’t know how to turn on their computer, never mind understand the intricacies of Social networking.

It should be interesting to see whether people on City Council and management have the integrity to right their wrongs or simply make things worse?

The founders of the new Cornwall Ontario Facebook page posted that they hope to eclipse the city’s page shortly.  It should say something about social networking and the internet itself if they are successful.

What do you think amazingly valued viewers of The Cornwall Free News?  You can post your comments below.

It seems Mr. Bellmore has been building a You Tube Channel that has drawn over 1,000,000 million page views.

According to Mr. Bellmore the trouble started when his computer went on the fritz and he being burnt out took a mini sabbatical.

This resulted in queries and suggestions from he being “kidnapped” or arrested to simply running off with funds that his subscribers donated.

After a bit of searching we hooked up with Mr. Bellmore this afternoon at the Island Ink Jet Internet Cafe where we shot an interview and caught up with Cornwall’s other Million Man!

Joey is like a friendlier Canadian version of Alex Jones.   His messages focus more on health and food issues according to what we talked about as well as politics and some of the standard “truther” message.

I found it interesting how he and so many other young people have become so distrustful of the system; especially the political system that they’ve evolved into these myriad beliefs?

To me, my hope is that more people become involved in politics instead of American Idol and that they ask questions and make changes to the world.

Joey says he’ll be getting a new computer soon and has high hopes for his channel.  He wants to host his own radio and video show like Alex Jones and if energy alone can make it happen he’ll probably be back broadcasting before can say Stephen Harper is a big American sell out.

What do you think Truthers?  You can post your comments below.

]]> http://cornwallfreenews.com/2012/01/cornwall-ontarios-joey-bellmore-reaches-1-million-you-tube-views-video-interview-january-23-2012/feed/ 3 http://cornwallfreenews.com/2011/12/bad-pete-marier-off-the-air-at-chom-in-montreal-media-trends-seeing-the-loss-of-so-many-veterans-december-26-2011/ http://cornwallfreenews.com/2011/12/bad-pete-marier-off-the-air-at-chom-in-montreal-media-trends-seeing-the-loss-of-so-many-veterans-december-26-2011/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:56:27 +0000 admin http://cornwallfreenews.com/?p=31119

Pete Marier : Facebook Photo

CFN – There’s a trend in BIG CORPORATE media that is seeing a lot of talented people being replaced by young and less experienced voices.    Cost reduction or just reactions to divergence in media?  Some would see a decentralization and less focus on local is the culprit.  Create one radio show or one set of news stories and brand them locally and you save on an awful lot of staff.

Recently Astral in Montreal brought back old voice Terry Dimonte to replace “Bad Pete” Marier.   Marier, a long time voice in Montreal radio was to be bumped to the afternoon slot, but Astral decided to tender him a contract for a lower amount than he was earning as the morning voice on CHOM.

Mr. Marier understandably wasn’t happy and the end result was his removal from the air waves.

English radio in Montreal has a very rich history.  Growing up in CHOMedy, Laval as I did I grew up listening to the Ralph Lockwoods; the Ted Tevan’s, George Balcon’s; even Dean Hagopian, and so many other wonderous voices.  These people became our friends and part of the fabric of our lives in the mornings or drives home.   Now so much of that is gone.

Of course the world keeps spinning; even if we don’t use turntables or CD’s anymore to spin music; but these trends in media are most disturbing.

Newspaper chains have been loosening off a lot of names too.   What does that leave us with?  In my town; Cornwall Ontario,  after the retirement of Claude McIntosh I’m now the senior columnist and I’ve only been doing this for three years!

Smart Phones, tablets, Netflix, iTunes; how we get our music, news, TV, and entertainment and information is changing rapidly.    Is it all just dollars and cents are is our information delivery and distribution being re engineered?

Hopefully Bad Pete will be back on the airwaves soon.   He’s far too good at what he does to be silent for long.

You can post your comments below:

I just got my Cogeco bill.  Here in Cornwall we’re basically held hostage as Cogeco has a monopoly on Cable internet.  The only other option with any sort of speed is Bell and they are not much better an option.

You can go with either Tek Savvy or Primus which have unlimited plans, but the speeds available are not very practical especially if you work from home.

My bill for internet is $41.95 before taxes ( for the first year).   This month as I went over my bandwidth allowance I was zapped with a charge of $50.   Cogeco caps their extra charges at that point.

This is the second month I’ve had to do this.    So I went to the Cogeco website and sure enough they have a plan for $59 that would serve my purposes.  More than the $41 I’m paying, but certainly less than $91 with overage.

So I phoned them to only be told that it isn’t available in my area.  Of course they have no incentive to have it in my area when they can zap me and others for this outrageous amount of money.

Again, as a consumer I have no choice.  Either use a drastically reduced product or pay my hostage fees to a big company that our elected governments have given territorial monopolies to.

Is that productive? Democratic?  Nope.   So why is our government allowing this?   These companies actually whined to the CRTC, but we subsidize them with these outrageous rates and not having competition.

So today I’m giving out a great big LEMON to Cogeco.   I’m giving out a even bigger lemon to the CRTC for allowing this to happen.  We need options.  We need accountability and we need to stop allowing big corporations to rape consumers in this manner.

Hopefully this CRTC ruling isn’t one step forward two steps back.  Hopefully now we can petition our MP’s to pressure the CRTC to either break these monopolies or force these companies to cut this predatory practices.

Apple’s website said it best.

To me I’ll forever remember their commercial from 1984 which has so much imagery and was so thought provoking.  Whatever the world becomes Steve’s vision has touched almost all of us forever.

Steve Jobs WIKI

Mr. Jobs managed to hang around for the release of the latest iPhone, the 4S and 5 versions.

We lost a giant today.  To lead is never easy. To lead and stay in the lead legendary.

Steven Paul Jobs February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011

“Video games have an interesting history. From the time of their invention in the 1940’s there was a lot of controversy over the assumed role they played – pun

Kristine Pickens - Photo by Tricia Lee Robinson

intended – in society. We now have a community here in Cornwall rich in game players, from Facebook applications that have a large demographic of women to the widely popular health encouraging Nintendo Wii games. With any art, engineered product, piece of furniture, etc,.. there are those who designed the functional elements. 

There is a large growth in the people who want a piece of the development pie. Independant game development group Cornwall’s Game Makers is shaping, baking and slicing a piece of that pie.

Lindsey Lachance

Cornwall’s Game Makers are looking to add visual interest, excellent programming and game play, engaging storyline and memorable music and sound effects.

The group is only at the beginning stages right now, but are hoping to start small, possibly in the Facebook Application market but the sky is the limit, and the talk between the group is that with the collective achievements and action, perhaps it could blossom into something big.

Here in Cornwall. 

The inspiration and electrifying gaming industry has taken people in and looking to get into the gaming industry by storm. From the likes of Final Fantasy, Diablo 2, Lord of the Rings and even the Mario series. Little bits and pieces making up the desire and drive to continue the lineage and evolution of what was once a past time.

Both Lindsey and Bryan are recent graduates from the Game Development Technician program here at St. Lawrence College. They worked in programming languages, methodologies and the various applications of game development. Liz Leduc is a musician specializing in guitar, piano and has dabbled in sound effects. Kristine is a Graphic Design (St. Lawrence College, Kingston), 3D Animation and 3D Game Artist (Centre for Distance Education), graduate that has a long history of visual character development in many mediums.

Lindsey is now a Game Tester at a company in Montreal; one of the most coveted ways to get a foot in the door into the gaming industry. Liz Leduc promotes her music writing and playing through her Facebook page “Liz Leduc’s classical accoustic music” and has played at various local events including Rock for Charity. Kristine Picken is a Graphic Designer at a local company in Cornwall, and her portfolio can be viewed here: http://artist-portfolio.net/kristinepicken.

All of the team members are gamers with a love not only for the play, but the integration of their skills and talents in the development of that love. 

Cornwall’s Game Makers is still on the lookout for those that are interested in participating in the project. Any person that may have skills or talent in the arts, programming, project development and management, writing, etc,… can contact Kristine Picken by telephone 613-935-6818, or messaging on the Facebook page, “Cornwall’s Game Makers”.”

Please contact either Kristine, Shaun Bryan (bryanshaun_69@msn.com), Lindsey Lachance (pantz08@hotmail.com) or Liz Leduc (chickensaregreen@live.com), for more information.