First Vizio, then Pioneer, now LG?  LG (short for Life’s Good, but us old-timers remember them as Lucky Goldstar) is considering ceasing production of plasma televisions.  They have cited the global economic downturn as the reason.  That would leave only two companies, Panasonic and Hitachi, now manufacturing plasma glass.

I have said it many times, that plasma televisions just look better than their LCD counterparts.  However, if nobody is buying them, companies will stop manufacturing them.  Better latency and much better black levels among other things.  Don’t take my word for it, go out there and look!  I’m not in the business anymore, nor am I a salesman.  I am a technician first and foremost, so when it comes down to brass tacks I don’t really care what you end up purchasing.  I hope the world doesn’t end up with LCD as the only option.

Prior to reading my comments, it would be helpful to read the following articles that were posted on canoe.ca:

Ontario teen bullied beyond belief

Bullied student finds support

Now…The story of this girl, Lindsay Hyde, strikes a powerful chord within me.  It is not for sentimental reasons, as I was rarely bullied at school.  I am not small and can stand up for myself.  I have also had schooling in multiple forms of combat arts and as a last option, have no problems with any physical confrontation.  However, bullying is rarely one-on-one.  Bullies are like hyenas, they attack in packs.  Numbers provide confidence.

Bullies are the blights of the school yard until someone stands up to them.  Sadly, this girl is not physically capable of doing so without invoking serious retaliation and scorn from school administrators.  From what I have read, the school has done relatively little to appease her concerns.  In so saying that, I can say that it is very difficult for a school to do anything until a physical confrontation has occured.  It becomes a case of “she said, she said.”   Teachers nowadays are not allowed to break up a fight.  They can face reprimand, discipline and possible job loss.  Furthermore, if an altercation occurs off of school property, it becomes a matter for the authorities.

While my tendency is to say fight back, to do so truly makes the situation a catch-22.  If Lindsay is successful, she faces expulsion.  If she is unsuccessful, she faces a far worse beating than she has recieved in the past.  The situation reminds me of the movie The Karate Kid.  It is too bad there is no Mister Miyagi for Lindsay Hyde.

Despite their restrictions, the Peel School Board could still be helpful in this situation.  The could allow Lindsay to transfer to another school (and cover the bus fare), or they could appoint a bodyguard for her.  The latter is something that has never been employed before, but thinking outside the box is something I do well.  It is the responsibility of the School Board to ensure a safe environment for all staff and students, by any means necessary.  Lastly, if it were up to me, I would name these bullies publicly.  They are punks, nothing more, and should be treated the way that they treat others.  Let the public bully them, and give them a taste of their own medicine.  Let them be shamed into behaving properly.

Lastly my message to Lindsay, should she ever come across this blog and read this post is very simple.  Persevere.  Take strength from those people who matter in your life.  You will overcome the adversity before you.  To speak out and stand up to these bullies is courageous.  You are not running and hiding and this is admirable.

Bolt is a Disney Animated Studios production that I recently have had the pleasure of viewing.  It is about a small dog who believes he has super powers, as he has spent his life on a movie set warding off the forces of evil.  He believes that his owner, Penny, has been kidnapped and sets off on a mission to find her.

This movie is one of the best animation flicks I have seen, period.  Everyone from kids to adults will enjoy this movie.  My roommates two little boys have watched Bolt countless times.  The animation is superb and the voice acting is great.  John Travolta plays Bolt.

The news out of Japan is that Pioneer Electronics is abandoning consumer electronics entirely.  The company forecasts losses of almost 850 million dollars through March of this year.  Of this, 40% is from the home electronics division.

This does not mean people should not purchase Pioneer.  The company is not insolvent, but plans to restructure around its car audio business, which accounts for the majority of its sales.  On the contrary, people looking to buy a plasma should snap up what Pioneer still has out there!  Pioneer, hands down, manufactured the highest quality plasma display panels and televisions in the industry.  Nothing holds a candle to their plasma product.  Nothing.  Take it from someone who has seen almost all of them.

When I worked at AVDeals (plasma.com), I sold literally hundreds of Pioneer panels.  They were generally the most expensive panels out there, but they were also the highest quality panels on the market.  For the most part, they sold themselves.  However, given the economic downturn, and the improved quality of the competition (noteably Panasonic, with whom Pioneer had a deal to manufacture their panels prior to this most recent turn), consumer choice has shifted to a price-based model vs. the quality-based model that Pioneer products preach.

Pioneer will continue to manufacture DVD players, however they will do so under the Sharp brand.  Sharp and Pioneer have been close for many years, often building complementary products to one another.

Pioneer has called a press conference for Thursday to discuss these matters when it releases their earnings statement.

As I have written before, the cutoff date for analog transmission in the United States was February 12th.  This has been extended to June 12th, 2009.  This is, believe it or not, a good thing because without this extension many Americans would be without TV.  On the flipside, no TV might be considered a good thing as it would force them to do something else other than to stare at the Idiot’s Lantern.

We had the UFC, the Super Bowl, and a LAN Party.  That’s a busy, fun weekend right there.

My roommate hosts LAN parties every six weeks or so.  Essentially, it’s an excuse for a bunch of guys (and the occasional female) to show up with their computers on a Friday night, stay awake non-stop until sometime Sunday morning, drink like fish, and obliterate one another over and over again within the context of their video game of choice.  Occasionally there are prizes, wings, breakfasts, pizza for dinner, and the unfortunate guy who has no choice but to worship the porcelain goddess.  Despite the fact that I very rarely play video games, I still enjoy everyone’s company.  I do not get much sleep, maybe about six hours between Friday and Sunday.  Everyone has a good time, except for the cranky neighbor, and it is good, clean fun with lots of swearing.

Most of our guests are fans of the UFC, and if can be timed we do it in conjunction with a pay-per-view.  This lan party (officially BTM 63) coincided with UFC 94: St. Pierre vs. Penn II.  Needless to say, it was a pretty good PPV, with St. Pierre taking the fight handily.  Penn could not answer the call for round five, after sustaining almost fifteen minutes of brutal ground and pound (the first round was pretty even).  As fellow Canadians, nobody would bet on Penn.

I was rooting for St. Pierre as well, not only because he is a fellow Canadian, but the fact that BJ Penn came across as very arrogant during the pre-fight interviews.  I don’t know if it was fight hype, but he was accusing St. Pierre of having a weak heart, and criticizing his trainers.  Things like that do not go over very well in MMA due to the fact that most of the fighters are very respectful of one another, even if they do not like them.  BJ running his mouth off, or shooting from the hip, it is not professional and he should know better.  Oh well…I guess somebody has to be the heel.  It’s not professional wrestling, but it sells tickets.

The only knockout of the entire event was Lyoto Machida putting Thiago Silva to sleep with one second left in the first round.  Given Machida’s elusive fighting style (this was the first knockout of his fourteen fight career), nobody would have predicted that.  UFC 94 saw the first seven fights go to a decision.  It was a very well put together card and the fights were all very close.  From what I saw, the judges got the decisions right.  Getting back to Machida, this guy deserves a title shot.  The UFC is reluctant to do so because he is such a polar fighter.  You either love him or hate him.  People who want blood and guts will not like Machida’s fighting style because he is very elusive and technical.  His background is non traditional; it is Shotokan Karate.  Because of this, he distances himself farther away than a traditional mixed martial artist, and has a counterpunching style out of the pocket.  This makes him very difficult to close in on or hit.

Another fighter that impressed me was Jon Jones.  He’s very young, only 21, and he fought a big, tough guy in Stephan Bonnar and came out on top.  His style is very aggressive, but extremely unorthodox.  Rarely do you see fighters employing a mix of wrestling and taekwondo.  Spinning back fists, back kicks, and front suplexes are all in Mr. Jones’ repetoire.  And he has nothing but time.  He needs to work on his conditioning, as he tired during round two and allowed Bonnar to make a comeback of sorts, and his submission game.

Assuming you do not live in a closet, you know that Sunday was the Super Bowel.  Arizona vs. Pittsburgh.  The Steelers won, but the game was very close.  Arizona was leading with less than three minutes to play.  I was cheering for them, not because I have a favorite team, but I like the underdogs.  It’s nice when they win one.  Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band played the halftime.  He did a good job, but I’m not into Springsteen.  I bet there are people out there who bought a Superbowl ticket just to see The Boss.

Of course, the biggest part of the Super Bowl (aside from the game) are the commercials.  Given that we are in Canada, we do not get to see the great commercials that they show in the United States, so I have to become a filthy downloader to get them.  I don’t care about the game, the entertainment is all in the ads! 

And that was the weekend that was.