By Sheila
Lennon
Bottom-up' journalism from the pros
Fair and balanced, too!
Blogging will be sporadic this week and next. My colleague Frank is on
vacation and I'm picking up some of his tasks on top of my own.
September 10, 2004, 6:10 p.m. -- Last
week's weblog
The
Ten Most Hated Men in Rock: At Missouri's Riverfront
Times:
1. Paul McCartney Barely qualified to carry John Lennon's roach
clip while both toiled with a grotesquely overrated boy band known as the
Beatles, Sir
Paul's true colors have reverberated loudly and horribly since Mark David
Chapman put a tragic slug in Yoko's hubby. "Band on the Run" could
have been written by a third grader, and McCartney's duets with alleged pedophile
Michael
Jackson -- and the ensuing public pissing match over Wacko Jacko's savvy
purchase of the Beatles' catalogue -- cemented McCartney's legacy of poor
taste and
idiocy. ...
Etc.
Related: AltWeeklies.com links "news
and arts reporting from more than 100 alternative
newsweeklies" on one page. It's a long-overdue idea.
Link
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The Pats come through: For Patriots fans, the last minute of last night's
27-24 win over the Colts was straight out of the Brady bunch's magical
repertoire.
Here's how the losers' hometown paper tells it:
...the Colts defense held and Manning hit wide receiver Brandon Stokley
down the middle for 45 yards to the New England 19.
The killer came three plays later, on third-and-8 at the 17. Patriots outside
linebacker Willie McGinest, who made a game-saving tackle in the teams' regular-season
meeting last year, came free off the left corner. His 12-yard sack of Manning
turned a 36-yard field goal attempt into a 48-yarder.
"You're supposed to score when you get down there. We just made mistakes," said
Manning, who completed 16-of-29 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns.
"This stinks."
...Mike Vanderjagt, who calls himself "Money," then missed the
game-tying field goal from 48 yards with 19 seconds to play.
This won't be as much fun when the Patriots lose, but here we go to the Indianapolis
Star, which chronicles the heartbreaker:
• 3 turnovers, field goal miss cost Colts win
• Kravitz: Same old sorry ending
• Too many mistakes doom offensive plan
• Notebook: Vanderjagt simply misses
• Sights & Sounds: A dummy for the ages
I gave up on the Red Sox because, year after year, they broke my heart. They
never could come through like that. Obviously, the Patriots can.
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Cooking For Engineers: You have to love the layout of the recipe:
"Lady's fingers" are not to be taken
literally, dear engineers. "Ladyfingers" are spongecake-like cookies named
for their shape.
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All
wrong, 'brainwrong': At Something
Awful, photos of grandparents and babies have
been altered to resize their heads and put them back on the wrong bodies.
Disturbing the natural order is visually jarring.
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Inventors
try to weaken hurricane: I've been wondering whether hurricanes
could be countered. The Palm Beach Post reports today,
Peter Cordani thinks he can take some of the killer out of a roof-ripping,
tree-tossing hurricane.
For three years, the Jupiter businessman and inventor has been trying to
get hurricane experts to consider his super-absorbant product, SK-1000, which
can be dumped into a hurricane to weaken it before landfall.
"It will suck the moisture out of the storm and cool the storm down
15 degrees within seconds," says Cordani. "That will reduce the
devastating punch. If you reduce a storm by 8 to 15 mph you can reduce 60
percent of its damage."...
AP reports that "Cordani is in contract talks to lease a 747 tanker
from Evergreen Aviation in Oregon."
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September 9, 2004, 1:45 p.m.
Draft-dodger
memorial to be built in Canada: Now we have all the bases covered:
Those who went, those who stayed stateside in the National Guard and those
who went
to Canada. (The lengths to which some went to get deferments are a tale for
another day.)
NELSON, B.C. - B.C. activists plan to erect a bronze sculpture honouring draft
dodgers, four decades after Americans opposed to the Vietnam War sought refuge
in Canada.
The memorial, created by artists in Nelson, B.C., ties into a two-day celebration
planned for July 2006 that pays tribute to as many as 125,000 Americans who
fled to Canada between 1964 and 1977.
* LINKS: Seeking Sanctuary: Draft Dodgers
"This will mark the courageous legacy of Vietnam War resisters and the
Canadians who helped them resettle in this country during that tumultuous era," Isaac
Romano, the director of the Our Way Home festival told a news conference
in Nelson Tuesday.
The event will honour people who came to Canada and resisted war efforts,
from burning their draft cards during the Vietnam War to leaving the army to
protest the war in Iraq, Romano said.
Musicians – many of who participated in the anti-war movement – will
play at the festival, scheduled for July 8-9, 2006. Historians and critics
of U.S. foreign policy will speak and a documentary about American war resisters
by director Michelle Mason will be screened.
Estimates of the number of Americans who came to Canada because they opposed
the Vietnam War range from 50,000 to 125,000. ...
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The
Wilderness Campaign: Al Gore lives on a street in Nashville.by
David Remnick A long, poignant profile.
...Now, everywhere he goes, Gore is faced with crowds who despair of the
Bush Administration and see in him all that might have been, all the what-ifs. The
heartbreak of a lifetime. Sometimes people approach him and address him
as “Mr. President.” Some try to cheer him up and tell him, “We
know you really won.” Some tilt their heads, affecting a look of grave
sympathy, as if he had just lost a family member. He has to face not only
his own regrets; he is forever the mirror of others’. A lesser man
would have done far worse than grow a beard and put on a few pounds....
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The
Flapper: "As far as I know, this is the only paper airplane
that flaps its wings when it flies. No motor, no rubberbands. Just a piece
of typing paper, a penny and an inch of tape."
The folding instructions are printable.
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The
Best of Eyetrack III: What We Saw When We Looked Through Their Eyes. Steve
Outing and Laura Ruel. at Poynter.org:
...In Eyetrack III, we observed 46 people for one hour as their eyes followed
mock news websites and real multimedia content. In this article we'll provide
an overview of what we observed. You can dive into detailed Eyetrack III
findings and observations on this website -- use the navigation at the top
and left of this page -- at any time. If you don't know what eyetracking
is, get oriented by reading the Eyetrack
III FAQ.
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Burned
by the Spotlight: Howard Dean on the Blistering Coverage of
His Candidacy
and the State of the American Media. A Q & A at Columbia Journalism Review.
Here's some of it:
I wrote a piece for CJR in 2000 about how the media favored George W.
Bush over Al Gore. Reporters seem to have been taken in by Bush’s seeming
friendliness. Yet, I don’t get the feeling that this administration
loves reporters. Do you?
No, I think they can’t stand them. I’ll tell you an interesting
story about that. I know a reporter. She was on both the Bush and Gore planes.
She told me that she thought the reason that Bush got so much better press
coverage was that he didn’t work that hard. Bush did two events a day
and jogged for two hours during the day, so everybody could take a break
and file, and there was no pressure. On the Gore plane, they were doing six
events
a day and she thought that had a huge influence on the coverage, because
people were crabby and tired on the Gore plane.
Do you think the press is treating Kerry unfairly?
The problem is the national press can’t write the same story thirty days
in a row. But candidates have to say the same thing thirty days in a row. I’ve
been out with Kerry, and things are going great on the campaign trail. He’s
energetic, he’s engaged. He connects with people. We did a big event,
and then we did a small event for people who had lost their jobs. Kerry was
terrific. None of that came across in the national press, but it all came across
in the local press. So I concluded the local press does a better job of talking
about the campaign than the national press, partly because the national press
can’t write the job story, which is the central theme of the campaign,
800 times.
What could the press do differently? People aren’t going to want
to watch the same thing every night on the evening news, are they?
The truth is, they generally do put that [candidates’ daily speeches]
in the evening news most nights. The evening news is more accurate and more
serious than cable or print. Cable networks have got three hours worth of news
and twenty-four hours to fill, and the consequences are perfectly obvious.
I think the network TV news — Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather — does
the best job. The exception is investigative journalism, which is spotty
on the networks.
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politics.slashdot.org: "Politics
for nerds. Your vote matters."
Off-Color
Fashions Accessorize Elections: Womens eNews
Russian laser game: Geometry, mirrors, splitters. Not fuzzy.
September 8, 2004, 3:06 p.m. -- Last
week's weblog
Jimmy
Carter lambastes Zell Miller over RNC speech: The mild-mannered former
president from Georgia lets the wild-eyed nominally Democratic senator from
Georgia have
both barrels over Miller's bombastic appearance at the Republican Convention.
Here's the text of a letter from Carter to Miller this past weekend, released
by Miller's office, according to AP.
You seem to have forgotten that loyal Democrats elected you as mayor and as
state senator. Loyal Democrats, including members of my family and me, elected
you as lieutenant governor and as governor. It was a loyal Democrat, Lester
Maddox, who assigned you to high positions in the state government when you
were out of office. It was a loyal Democrat, Roy Barnes, who appointed you
as U.S. Senator when you were out of office. By your historically unprecedented
disloyalty, you have betrayed our trust.
Great Georgia Democrats who served in the past, including Walter George, Richard
Russell, Herman Talmadge, and Sam Nunn disagreed strongly with the policies
of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and me,
but they remained loyal to the party in which they gained their public office.
Other Democrats, because of philosophical differences or the race issue, like
Bo Callaway and Strom Thurmond, at least had the decency to become Republicans.
Everyone
knows that you were chosen to speak at the Republican Convention because
of your being a “Democrat,” and it’s quite possible
that your rabid and mean-spirited speech damaged our party and paid the
Republicans some transient dividends.
Perhaps more troublesome of all is seeing you adopt an established and
very effective Republican campaign technique of destroying the character
of opponents
by wild and false allegations. The Bush campaign’s personal attacks on
the character of John McCain in South Carolina in 2000 was a vivid example.
The claim that war hero Max Cleland was a disloyal American and an ally of
Osama bin Laden should have given you pause, but you have joined in this ploy
by your bizarre claims that another war hero, John Kerry, would not defend
the security of our nation except with spitballs. (This is the same man whom
you described previously as “one of this nation's authentic heroes, one
of this party's best-known and greatest leaders -- and a good friend.")
I, myself, never claimed to have been a war hero, but I served in the
navy from 1942 to 1953, and, as president, greatly strengthened our military
forces and protected our nation and its interests in every way. I don’t
believe this warrants your referring to me as a pacificist.
Zell, I have known you for forty-two years and have, in the past, respected
you as a trustworthy political leader and a personal friend. But now, there
are many of us loyal Democrats who feel uncomfortable in seeing that you have
chosen the rich over the poor, unilateral preemptive war over a strong nation
united with others for peace, lies and obfuscation over the truth, and the
political technique of personal character assassination as a way to win elections
or to garner a few moments of applause. These are not the characteristics of
great Democrats whose legacy you and I have inherited.
AP
reports Miller's response:
Miller shot back Tuesday by reiterating his contention, made in the address,
that the security of his family outweighed any loyalty to the party where he
has spent a lifetime.
"John F. Kennedy warned about the dangers of extreme party loyalty and
once said, 'What sins have been committed in its name,'" said Miller,
who insists he will retire in January as a Democrat. "My first loyalty
is and always will be my family."
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Escher
unhinged: M.C. Escher photoshopping contest inspires spectacular entries:
At Worth 1000, of course, which deleter entries that don't meet the frequent
contests' high standards. Full-size
images. Thumbnails.
Participants have 48 hours to transform any MC
Escher image in
some way.
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WSJ: So Your Roomba Vacuums ... Does It Also Take Pictures?
Phillip Torrone and his wife share their Seattle house with five Sony Aibo
dog robots, two Segway motorized scooters, a suitcase-size robot whose brain
is a laptop computer, and dozens of other gadgets. With the help of small
digital video cameras, Mr. Torrone is modifying the Segway to automatically
follow
a pink ball. The laptop robot is trained to follow the Segway. When the robot
gets close enough, it chirps out "ma-ma." Mr. Torrone has also
modified his Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner to putter around the house and
take pictures,
periodically sending a Web log snapshots of electrical outlets and a dog bed....
You get the idea. There's a bit of familiar history tucked in here:
Remember the CueCat?
Projo.com was among the sites to use the Digital
Convergence barcode scanner.
It's mentioned here:
Hackers sometimes play a cat-and-mouse game with hardware manufacturers riled
by product modifications. Things got testy several years ago with Digital Convergence
Corp., the now-defunct maker of the hand-held CueCat barcode scanner, which
was given away free to consumers for plugging into their PCs. By waving the
scanner over barcodes in newspaper and magazine ads, users could go instantly
to Web sites with information about the advertised products, but their movements
were being tracked for marketing purposes. Hardware hackers figured out how
to use the scanners to reach the sites -- or read any bar code -- without leaving
a trail for marketers. The secret: snipping a wire to circumvent a tiny chip
on the CueCat's circuit board. Digital Convergence's lawyers sent cease-and-desist
letters to people who posted Web sites with instructions on how to hack the
machines, but the company ceased operating before the matter came to a head.
Link
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September 7, 2004, 7:13 p.m. -- Last
week's weblog
Censored
2005: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2003-2004 from Project
Censored, "a media research group out of Sonoma State University
which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters." (more) Here
are the top 10:
#1: Wealth
Inequality in 21st Century Threatens Economy and Democracy
#2:
Ashcroft vs. the Human Rights Law that Hold Corporations Accountable
#3:
Bush Administration Censors Science
#4:
High Levels of Uranium Found in Troops and Civilians
#5:
The Wholesale Giveaway of Our Natural Resources
#6:
The Sale of Electoral Politics
#7:
Conservative Organization Drives Judicial Appointments
#8:
Cheney's Energy Task Force and The Energy Policy
#9:
Widow Brings RICO Case Against U.S. government
for 9/11
#10:
New Nuke Plants: Taxpayers Support, Industry Profits
Related: Cowardice
in the newsrooms by Edward Wasserman, Knight professor of journalism
ethics at Washington and Lee University, in the Miami Herald
The performance of this country's finest news organizations in the run-up
to the Iraq invasion of March 2003 will be remembered as a disgrace. To be
sure, it was an angry, fearful time, and independent-minded reporting might
not have been heard above the drumbeats of patriotism and war. But it's hard
to read the hand-wringing confessionals from news organizations that now
realize that they got the prewar story wrong without concluding that the
real problem was they were afraid to tell the truth.
via Romenesko
Netflix
and TiVo to announce partnership, offer downloadable movies: AT PVRblog,
which has an illuminating discussion of the pros and cons. It
will
require a new TiVo and
a Netflix subscription
($20 a month for as many movies as you can watch, with 3 out at a time),
so it won't be cheap, and download times will be lengthy. The blog
points to a Newsweek
story. Ars
Technica raises some questions about compression and quality (not
an issue with a CD, but TV quality is not movie quality).
Meanwhile,
cable companies are rolling out their own "replay tvs" -- Cox Cable just launched
their version here, with up to 50 hours of storage. The scuttlebutt
from techs on the local Cox newsgroup says a firmware upgrade Sept. 13 will
let you watch one
show
and
record another,
an
essential
feature that had been missing.
Cox DVR set-top box rental is $9.99 a month, with a monthly service charge
of $4.95 a month.
The appeal of TiVo to me is that it can be programmed online rather than with
a remote. But it's not worth trading the 30-hour Panasonic Showstopper
I bought on eBay that came with a lifetime subscription for the nightly channel
guide:
The monthly fee is $0.
If you don't have some kind of DVR, they're worth investigating. You can record
anything that shows up with any keyword you like: Every Daily Show, even if
you're watching Bill Maher or local news at the time, for instance.
We
came in on the tale end of the Poirot series starring David
Suchet as
Agatha Christie's
fastidious Belgian detective, and we haven't seen them
all. Sunday the Biography Channel showed a full day of episodes, and we recorded
them through the DVR while we watched other shows through the cable box.
(The remote has gray buttons and blue buttons, and once you get used to it,
it's
like using a shift key on a keyboard to make different things happen.) We're
working through them slowly, deleting episodes after we watch them. (Although
we could offload them to the VCR if we cared to.) I've never bought a movie
DVD, and see very few movies more than once. If I had more storage, I'd just
put off deleting.
But I kept the Super Bowl.
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Gynecology: What's love got to do with it?
-- "We've got an issue in America. Too many good docs are getting out of
business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all
across this
country." George
W. Bush, Labor Day, Poplar
Bluff, , Mo.
Oof. I am not making this up. There's video here.
No woman would ever associate gynecology and love. If
you can't
relate, substitute proctology and you'll have a clearer idea.
But the headline writers were all over it
Bush
makes potent speech
New Zealand Herald, New Zealand - 1
hour ago
President George W. Bush offered an unexpected reason for cracking
down on frivolous medical lawsuits with an anecdote about obstetricians and
gynaecologists ... Bush apparently mixed up his words again while delivering
his usual
campaign speech about the rising cost of health care. ...
A
doctor's role, as seen by Bush
Sydney Morning Herald (subscription), Australia - 6
hours ago
Poplar Bluff, Missouri: President George Bush's stoush with the
English language continued this week, when he offered a surprising explanation
of what ...
Bush
puts foot in mouth - again
Ireland Online, Ireland - 4
hours ago
President Bush apparently mixed up his words again while delivering
his usual
campaign speech about the rising cost of health care. ...
Bush
wants doctors to 'practise their love'
Independent Online, South Africa - 10
hours ago
Poplar Bluff - United States President George Bush offered
an unexpected
reason on Monday for cracking down on frivolous medical lawsuits: "Too
many OB-GYNs ...
Bush unfazed by 'loving women' gaffe
The Age, Australia - 17 hours ago
Bush: OB-GYNs kept from 'practicing their love'
Reuters AlertNet, UK - 19 hours ago
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Mark Cuban -- broadcast.com founder, Dallas Mavericks owner and natural
blogger -- hates politics, but
he
has opinions -- on outsourcing, expensing stock options, protecting drug
company profits
and
the “opt
out” Social
Security option. He also loves his Sidekick
II.
So does J.D. Lasica,
who got a day with one before he had to pass it along to the next reviewer.
J.D. did interview
Hank Nothhaft, CEO
of Danger, Inc., for Engadget.
I applied for the beta test of the first Sidekick, but they never
replied. I was apparently not in the targeted teen demographic.
Related: Three
Minutes With Mark Cuban: The outspoken owner of the Dallas
Mavericks talks about the future of high-definition
TV. At PC World.
Link
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Doc
Searls is all over the
Beslan massacre.
Pain story: Trapped is
the headline of Outside magazine's excerpt of Between
a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston.
Who? Aron
Ralston completes 100-mile race in mountains LEADVILLE, Colo. -- A little
over a year after cutting off his arm to save his life during a solo hike
in Utah, Aspen's Aron Ralston completed the grueling Leadville Trail 100
ultramarathon at over 10,000 feet in elevation over the weekend....
The wags at MetaFilter offer reader reaction, and this bit of useful information:
To continue reading after the point at which Aron begins to do the deed, you
need to click on the "Outside
Magazine September 2004" link and do the free registration dance.
Lou Josephs is
tracking hurricanes, radio and the damage to the space program at Cape Canaveral.
The Iraq Coalition
Casualty Count went over 1,000 today.
: Google
turns 6. No cake.
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