By Sheila Lennon
'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros
Fair and balanced, too!
January 16, 2004, 7:10 p.m. -- (Last
week's weblog)
Random Pats playoff predictions, Week 2: Last
week, two of our
random newsroom guessers -- Mimi Burkhardt and Kevin McNamara -- nailed
the 17-14 score by which the Patriots beat
the Titans.
This week I went back to them, trolling for their predictions of the
score of Sunday's Colts-Patriots game. On the way back to my desk, I
polled 13 more people. This crowd expects to see points:
 Mimi
Burkhardt: 24-21 Pats
Kevin McNamara: 27-17 Pats
Scott MacKay: 17-14 Pats
Sean Polay: 24-20 Pats
Dave McPherson: 28-17 Colts
Jack Perry: 27-24 Pats
Ray Kiernan: 24-17 Pats
Frank Carnevale: 24-17 Pats
Bob Kerr: 24-10 Pats
M. Charles Bakst: 27-24 Pats
Howard Sutton: 23-16 Pats
Gail Ciampa: 21-10 Pats
Andy Smith: 30-24 Colts
Dave Weyermann: 49-42 Pats
Ken Hamwey: 24-21 Colts
I'll say 24-10 Pats. I think the Pats will showcase QB Tom Brady to
put an end to all the Peyton Manning hype, and the Pats' defense is going
to be far better than Kansas City's was last week.
Here's the weather prediction, as of Friday afternoon:
Sunday. Mostly
cloudy with a chance of snow in the morning. Then snow likely in the
afternoon. Light to moderate snow accumulations possible. Highs in
the lower 30s. South winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 70 percent.
The temperature will make for sloppy, wet snow.
Finally, some astrologers' takes:
Sports astrologer Andrea
Mallis, who writes for MLB magazines and espn.com, offers
thumbnail sketches of the quarterbacks and coaches and an interesting conclusion:
Tom Brady (Born April 3, 1977), Charismatic Leo with a commanding
Grand Trine in Fire, he’s an inspiring leader. Mars in fire sign
Aries is making complimentary aspects conferring patience to do exacting
work, and excellent
endurance. However Neptune, the planet of unusual happenings, is
also in the mix, opposing his Sun in Leo, suggesting "expect the
unexpected."
Peyton Manning (March 24, 1976), an enthusiastic Aries, is experiencing
an extremely potent Mars cycle. After defeating the Chiefs he exclaimed, “I’m
really hot right now, we are really hot right now.” Aries is
an energetic, fire sign, and Mars the planet of energy, just happens
to
be in aggressive Aries, fueling Peyton’s fire. Determined, he
overcomes obstacles with ease, with intense willpower. This offensive
powerhouse
star is on the rise.
Bill Belichick (April 16, 1952), another no-nonsense Aries, Bill’s
a resourceful competitor and strategist. The planet Saturn, which has
to do with limitations, is making a challenging aspect to Bill’s
Venus, which is the planet of attraction, making it difficult to fulfill
heartfelt desires. More somber than usual, abundance is harder to obtain.
Tony Dungy (October 6, 1955), a gregarious Libra, is on a crusade.
With Mars in Virgo he pursues desires in a methodical way. Possessed
by a
spirit of enterprise, his confidence and high energy create winning
situations. More intuitive than usual, he discovers how to turn ideals
into reality.
My sense is the Colts look stronger.
Astrologer Courtney
Roberts Conrad emails,
I like the Pats to beat the Colts. It should be a tough game, against
a worthy opponent, but ultimately, a memorable day for Tom Brady.
I'll
go with the Eagles, but that match is still up for grabs. The Panthers
are proven contenders now, but when the dust settles, I'm hoping
this is the day that Andy Reid finally moves on to the next round.
If the
future was already written in the stars, would we still bother
to play the games? Absolutely. May the best teams win.
Link
to this item | Comment
Women
in Iraq Decry Decision To Curb Rights: Council Backs Islamic Law on Families. The Washington Post reports,
BAGHDAD, Jan. 15 -- For the past four decades, Iraqi women have enjoyed
some of the most modern legal protections in the Muslim world, under
a civil code that prohibits marriage below the age of 18, arbitrary divorce
and male favoritism in child custody and property inheritance disputes.
Saddam Hussein's dictatorship did not touch those rights. But the
U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council has voted to wipe them out, ordering
in late
December that family laws shall be "canceled" and such issues
placed under the jurisdiction of strict Islamic legal doctrine known
as sharia.
This week, outraged Iraqi women -- from judges to cabinet ministers
-- denounced the decision in street protests and at conferences, saying
it would set back their legal status by centuries and could unleash emotional
clashes among various Islamic strains that have differing rules for marriage,
divorce and other family issues.
"This will send us home and shut the door, just like what happened
to women in Afghanistan," said Amira Hassan Abdullah, a Kurdish
lawyer who spoke at a protest meeting Thursday. Some Islamic laws,
she noted, allow men to divorce their wives on the spot.
"The old law wasn't perfect, but this one would make Iraq a jungle," she
said. "Iraqi women will accept it over their dead bodies."
You may recall that it was sharia laws that sentenced Amina Lawal of
Nigeria to be stoned to death for bearing a child out of wedlock. (She
was freed on a technicality after worldwide attention focused on her
plight.)
Although L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, has to
approve this secret council's decision, and is unlikely to, "experts
here said that once U.S. officials turn over political power to Iraqis
at
the end of June, conservative
forces could press ahead with their agenda to make sharia the supreme
law."
Zakia Ismael Hakki, a female retired judge and outspoken opponent
of the new order, said Thursday that since 1959, civil family law had
been
developed and amended under a series of secular governments to give
women a "half-share in society" and an opportunity to advance
as individuals, no matter what their religion.
"This new law will send Iraqi families back to the Middle Ages," Hakki
said. "It will allow men to have four or five or six wives. It
will take away children from their mothers. It will allow anyone who
calls
himself a cleric to open an Islamic court in his house and decide about
who can marry and divorce and have rights. We have to stop it."
How can we help?
Later: Another version
of this story, from the Financial Times of London,
includes the quote from Hamid Kifa'i, Governing Council spokesman: "It
is not a concession to fundamentalists, we don't have fundamentalists
in Iraq," he said.
Link
to this item | Comment
 "Champagne chair" contest winners: Design Within Reach (DWR)
furniture company's Holiday Champagne Chair Contest sought submissions
of miniature chairs created with champagne hardware -- corks, foil, the
wire etc.
We had contest entrants from all over the world, including the French
with an expected dose of fashion and flair. An entire class of students
from Montana improvised with nonalcoholic gear. We received a box of
entries from New Zealand, ranging from Corbusian formalism to family-minded
high chairs. Even the packaging for many of the entries was award-worthy.
There were numerous versions of classics, with the Nelson
Marshmallow Sofa being the most imitated seat in the house.
Amazing doll-house furniture resulted. Here
are the 22 finalists.
Link
to this item | Comment Editors lament: Tom Mangan's Prints
the Chaff is a blog for newspaper
editors. (Tom is on the features copy desk of the San Jose Mercury News).
He zings us with a couple this week:
Sponge for ridicule
I am speaking of yet another example of Poynter
Institute silliness,
this time praising so-called prize-winning headlines. I could link
to the list but I prefer the outpouring of invective over at Testy
Copy Editors.
I'll link
to the list, and even quote some of them:
• Woman found dead with arrow in head
• Gannon's cannon plugged by Bucs
• Roosters on Boosters
• Three cheers for Spears rear
• Are You Gaga for Google?
• Hurley snubs Bing's boon
• Baghdad boy band bid for big break
• Pudgy porkers pare pounds with new wanker's diet
• Flying moose lands on car's roof
• Police chief fries thief
• Chong gonged for selling bongs
• ROOSTER DIES AT PAWS OF PATRON
• Snack whacker fails to nip Nipchee in bud
Cheap tricks, heads that call attention to themselves rather than suck
you into reading the story.
Link
to this item | Comment
Cowardice,
illustrated: Also
from Tom, a more serious issue:
Columbia Journalism Review has a piece about a relatively obscure
topic -- illustrations
for the op-ed page...
This is long, and very good. (I read it twice.) The point is probably
best summed up in its pull quote, "A number of top illustrators told
me the same thing…All the heavy thinkers are gone. All the big
ideas diminished" but it's more subtle than that:
...Created in 1970, the (N.Y. Times op-ed) page was the first of its
kind, a symbiosis of word and image where neither was subservient,
where artists
were encouraged to portray the essence of a text as opposed to literal
interpretations, where their ideas were as essential as a writer’s
ideas. The result was opinioned, provocative art, often dark and unsettling,
from upstarts like Brad Holland, Roland Topor, and Eugene Mihaesco
that today in its audacity seems staggering. For the first anniversary
of
the Attica prison uprising Brad Holland drew the body of a black man
with one arm cut off at the elbow, and in the darkness of night, above
the ground where he lay dead, the amputated forearm rose to a clenched
fist, the severed fist of black power. Robert Pryor sketched Nixon
with a nose that drooped down into the shape of Vietnam. Roland Topor
depicted
unemployed people as armless supplicants waiting patiently in line
for new arms, which lay piled up on a desk.
The images underscored
the role
of op-ed art as articulated by Harrison Salisbury, the first editor
of the page. “Art is not employed on op-ed to ‘illustrate,’ to
give the reader a picture of the scene the writer is trying to describe,” Salisbury
wrote in the introduction to The Indignant Years, a collection of art
and articles from op-ed in the early ’70s. “No. The task
of op-ed’s images is to create an environment which extends and
deepens the impact of the word; to provide an ambiance in which the
writer may more intensively penetrate his reader’s mind.”
Over time, the word won out on the Times op-ed page, until today it
is a rare instance when you need to read a piece to interpret the art
conjoined with it. The art itself tends towards ha-ha irony while caricature
and direct representation of ideas, as opposed to icon, are discouraged.
...
Link
to this item | Comment
Conservative groups break with Republican leadership: The conservative
Washington Times reports,
National leaders of six conservative organizations yesterday broke
with the Republican majorities in the House and Senate, accusing
them of spending
like "drunken sailors," and had some strong words for President
Bush as well.
"The Republican Congress is spending at twice the rate as under
Bill Clinton, and President Bush has yet to issue a single veto," Paul
M. Weyrich, national chairman of Coalitions for America, said at a
news briefing with the other five leaders. "I complained about
profligate spending during the Clinton years but never thought I'd
have to do so with a Republican in the White House and Republicans
controlling the Congress."
Where's Ross Perot teaching the dangers of deficit spending when you
need him?
Link
to this item | Comment Mozilla
1.6 has been released. The cooperatively developed, free child
of Netscape gets better and better. It doesn't get those mail viruses,
comes with popup-killing as the default and other features that reflect
the way we want to browse, not how vendors want us to.
Link
to this item | Comment January 15, 2004, 6:10 p.m. CBS
rejects anti-Bush Super Bowl commercial (View
the
ad): Ad Age reports
today,
Viacom's CBS today rejected a request from liberal group MoveOn to air
a 30-second anti-President Bush ad during the Super Bowl, saying the
spot violated the network's policy against running issue advocacy advertising.
A CBS spokesman said the decision against broadcasting the spot had
nothing to do with either the Super Bowl or the ad's specific issue
but was
because the network has had a long-term policy not to air issue ads
anywhere on the network.
CBS will however run anti-smoking ads during
the game and, for the third year, an entry from The White House's
Office
of
National
Drug Control
Policy
(remember
the "drug
use aids terrorists" ads?).
This seems like a reason made up to explain a political decision, or
the most narrow definition of "issue" in our lexicon.
Who's advertising in the Super Bowl so far? Charmin toilet paper,
Budweiser, the launch of anti-impotence drug Levitra (challenger to Viagra),
Lay's potato chips, AOL, GM, Dodge, a bunch of movies, anti-smoking ads
from Philip Morris, a lifestyle ad aimed at teens from the American
Legacy Foundation and the aforementioned White House's Office of National
Drug
Control
Policy
are
all in the lineup.
Quite coincidentally, on Jan. 6 a federal grand jury charged Thomas
Early, finance director for the New York office of the ad agency that
produced the ads, Ogilvy & Mather
Worldwide,
and former senior partner Shona
Seifert
with conspiracy and filing false claims, saying they submitted inflated
bills to the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy in
1999 and 2000. (Washington
Post); they have since resigned.
Advertising
Age posted an annotated list of Super Bowl 38 advertisers (pdf)
so far
in its Jan. 12 issue. CNN
Money reported Tuesday that "CBS has sold 54
spots so far, with eight remaining scattered throughout the game. Those
spots will likely go for less than the average price, according to Ad
Age, with a fourth-quarter spot going for as "little" as $1.8
million."
Ad Age reported Jan. 3, "Apple and Pepsi-Cola North America will
give away 100 million free song downloads from the iTunes Music Store
as part
of a Pepsi promotion that begins Feb. 1 on the Super Bowl." (For $3
you can read
the story there)
CBS,
which is televising the game, is owned by Viacom.
Longtime
journalist Jeff Jarvis reacts to the news:
That's a pile of Black Rock bile.
What, they can accept an ad about, oh, literacy and that's not an issue?
They accept ads against smoking and that's not an issue?
But an ad about the presidential election and the deficit is somehow
corrupting?
Listen, I'm no fan of the MoveOn ads, as I've said. And I'm no fan of
interference with the airwaves and media. But I have to say that this
offends my senses of democracy, free speech, responsible media behavior,
and just good business. It's dumb on CBS' part: insulting to the audience
and irresponsible to democracy. It is, on the other hand, great news
for MoveOn: They'll get tons of publicity and I would be surprised if,
oh, Fox calls and volunteers to run the ad.
J.D.
Lasica, senior editor at Online Journalism Review:
CBS's "no issue ads" policy has always seemed paternalistic
and demeaning to me, treating us as if we can't handle public policy
views that we may disagree with.
Oliver
Willis (Like Kryptonite to Stupid):
In A Democracy, Don't Criticize The President
So will this mean no drugs = terrorist commercials? CBS (and it's corporate
parent, Viacom) turn away money to appease the powers that be. Sad.
Dan
Gillmor (SJ Mercury News) foresaw such an ending:
...maybe it's all a plot by the CBS outpost of the Liberal Media Conspiracy
(TM). Here's the idea: Turn down the ad, which will generate a firestorm
of publicity, and then the ad will get played on all the news shows
-- free advertising and a much bigger bang for the buck. Maybe CBS
is plotting
with MoveOn.org! Ooooh, those clever lefties.
However, it's genuinely gratifying to discover that CBS actually has
some standards. That's not obvious given the quality of the network's
programming.
Later: More
details from Salon. (Free day pass still works.)
Link
to this item | Comment The
Corporation as Psychopath: A find from Yule
Heibel:
Sometimes there's nothing quite like radio, especially CBC: Sounds
like Canada...
This morning I heard an amazing clip from a recent documentary film
called The
Corporation. It's based on a book, The
Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (check this link, great article), by Joel
Bakan, a law professor at UBC
Ottawa Indymedia also has an article, with additional links to related
sites. And there's a trailer.
The film questions the sanity of an institution that has been given
the legal status of a person, but one with no concern for human values.
Considering the power that the institution holds, and its psychopathic
personality, the documentary uses case studies to explore the impacts
that the corporation has on our environment, our children, our media,
and even our genes.
The excerpt I heard on this morning's radio broadcast came from a Wall
Street trader who commented that seemingly every trader's first thought,
when 9/11 happened, was fixed on what the price of gold would do (go
up, naturally) and how or whether he or she was invested in gold. He
added that during the first Gulf War, the price of oil went way up, and
that the current invasion of Iraq was again seen as a business opportunity
by traders. He and his colleagues hoped that Saddam would do something
really terrible, that he would torch the oilfields completely, because
that would just drive the price up even more...
Link
to this item | Comment
Shakespeare on the NFL playoffs: Reader Don Speakman of Bahama,
N.C. (who was born and raised in the Riverside section of East Providence),
compiled and sends along an annotated labor of love:
The 2003 National Football season has come to a close leaving the final
four teams vying to play in Super Bowl XXXVIII . Time to reflect over
the events of this past year and to assist us, there is no greater football
aficionado than Shakespeare himself. Hark ye! See how the Bard of Avon
doth observith this past season:
"For young hot Colts being raged to rage the more." King
Richard The II. II, I
(Yeah? Wait until they run up against the Pats defence!)
"Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent." Much
Ado About Nothing, II, I
(Jake Delhomme Panthers free-agent quarterback)
"Till his brains turn O' the toe." Twelth Night, I, iii
Adam Vinatieri, the Pat's Field Goal kicker wins more games than most
QB.
"The play's the thing." Hamlet II,II
(Eagles Donovan McNabb's response to critic Rush Limbaugh.)
"Blow, blow, thou winter wind" As You Like it. II, vii
(Fervent prayer of Pats fans to slow down Peyton Manning's performance.
Can the same demons that denied his father (Archie Manning) a trip to
the Super Bowl haunt him still?)
"Into the breach once more dear friends, into the breach" Henry
V, III, i
(Plea of Peyton Manning to his blockers until he can find a man open.)
"That seeist a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn, and takest
it all for jest." The Winter's Tale, I,ii
(Not so the Pats. They relish the home field advantage. Anyone recall
last Saturday night? Brrr!)
"See how I am bewitched; behold mine arm is like a blasted sapling,
wither'd up." King Richard III, III, iv
(A quarterback's lament whenever the game's not going his way. He's a
victim of the Black Arts.)
"That like a football you do spurn me thus? You spurn me hence,
and he will spurn me hither." The Comedy of Errors, II, i
(Lot of spurning going on around here. How about a five yard penalty
for delay of game)
"This shoulder was ordain'd so thick to heave; and heave it
shall some weight, or break my back." King Henry VI, V,vii
(Didn't seem to bother Dave Thornton of the Colts, he made 140 tackles
this year.)
"I see that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to." Othello,
IV, I
(He was supposed to run a post pattern.)
"Stir not until the signal." Julius Caesar, V, i
(The last thing we need now is an offside call.)
"What a rascal art thou to praise him so for running!" King
Henry IV, II, iv
(What? Antowaine Smith's 182 carries for 642 yards wasn't good enough?)
"Thou art the issue of my dear offence, (offense) which was so
strongly urged past my defence." King John, I, i
(Too many men on the field? Fifteen yard penalty)
"Where , if it please you, you may intercept him. The Two Gentlemen
From Verona, III, i
(And did they ever! The Pats compiled a total of 29 interceptions this
season.)
"I will fear to catch it and give way: when I know not what else
to do." Timon
of Athens, IV, iii
(Wide receivers have become an endangered species.Yet Marvin Harrison
, for the Colts caught 94 for a season total o f 1,272 yards)
"I'll not be struck my lord, nor tripped neither, you base football
player." King
Lear, I, iv
(So there! If you harass me again I shall report you to the referee!)
"Thou hast a pair of chaps, no more, and throw between them." Antony
and Cleopatra, III,v
(Anything to get rid of it. No one picked up the blitz.)
"Let me be umpire in this doubtful strife." Henry VI,
IV, i
(Yeah Ref, you guys do such a wonderful job!)
"I'll catch it ere it comes to ground." Macbeth, III, v
(Patriots Deion Branch caught 57 passes in the regular season for a total
of 803 yards.)
"What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms?" Titus and
Andronicus, IV, ii
(It's a football stupid! Steve Smith of the Panthers recovered 4 of em.)
"O, my offence (offense) is rank. It smells to heaven" Hamlet,
III,iii
(Moans of frustrated coaches for the Giants, Cardinals, Raiders and Chargers
each with 12 losses for the season)
"What hacks are on his helmut! Look you yonder, do you see? Look
you there: there's no jesting." Troilus And Cressida, I, ii
(C'mon Ref. No face mask?)
"Let us understand. There are three umpires in this matter" The
Merry Wives of Windsor, I, i
( And all the striped shirts now crowd around the screen monitor for
the instant replay.)
"He shall have nothing but the penalty." The Merchant of Venice,IV,i
(So. It's fifteen yards. What else yah got?)
"They say he cried out of sack." King Henry V, II, iii
(Yeah.Look out for Mike Rucker of the Panthers he made 12 sacks during
the regular season.)
Tomorrow, this week's random playoff predictions, and a few astrologers'
picks as well.
Link
to this item | Comment
National event not happening here: I read this at Doc's:
From Micah
Sifry comes pointage toward the Take
Action! The Wellstone Civic Dialogue Project, which is holding
a national reading of Paul Wellstone's book, Conscience
of a Liberal, at many locations across the country on Thursday,
February 5.
Local chapters of national events are news staples, so I go there, plug "RI" into the
form that list meetings in each state, and see:
Closed | Thursday, February 05, 2004 | Providence - Benefit St | This
event is private.
Next window, please.
Link
to this item | Comment
January 14, 2004, 6:45 p.m. We're leading with football, but then it changes... A
Beautiful Mind: Cerebral Eagles center Hank Fraley. From
my Canadian correspondent, Eric Lilius, comes a pointer to a nice
profile of "Honeybuns" in The Atlantic. Author Mark Bowden
introduces Fraley by noting that in the stands before a game,
...search as you might, and I have searched high and low, you will
be hard-pressed to find one among these thousands sporting the number
63, worn by Hank Fraley.
 This
despite the fact that Fraley has started almost every Eagles game for
the past three seasons, and has handled the ball on at least three
fourths of the team's offensive plays during that period—the
most successful stretch of football the Eagles have played in more
than twenty years. He played a critical role in orchestrating most
of those plays. He was rewarded for his skills last year with a $1.4
million signing bonus and a five-year, million-dollar-a-year contract
extension—precisely the kind of deal sought in vain by Staley,
the Eagles' star running back.
Fraley is the center. He is the guy who squats and offers his wide
rear end to the quarterback before almost every offensive play, who
snaps the ball into the star's hands and then braces himself to be
run over. He has never scored a touchdown. He has never passed, kicked,
caught, or carried the football in a game—not in high school,
college, or the NFL. Not once. ...
There are scenes from the Sept. 14 game against the Pats -- a 31-10
disaster for the Eagles -- and some nice chatter between Patriots and
Eagles on the field, the stuff we only notice on TV if it gets physical.
If the Super Bowl comes down to these two teams -- and this is the rematch
I'd like to see -- remember Hank Fraley, aka Honeybuns. (Boden: "His
teammates dubbed him 'Honeybuns,' or 'Buns,' after a practice session
in his rookie season when he was beset by a stubborn bumblebee, which
prompted Tra Thomas to joke that he must be 'sweet as a honeybun.' ")
Related: 4th & 26 is "a
fan blog for Eaglemania" by Yvonne
Dennis, Philadelphia Daily News
City Desk editor. (The reference comes from the clutch pass that saved
the day Sunday for the Eagles against the Green Bay Packers. In Yvonne's
words, the "McNabb-to-Mitchell 28-yard completion on 4th and 26,
to lead to game-tying field goal and OT."
Link
to this item | Comment
In
our mind there's nothing in Carolina: Okay, so we're running
Chicken
Dance stories about Peyton Manning, but this Philadelphia
Daily News story is foaming at the mouth about Charlotte, the home
of the Panthers. Here author Will Bunch is just warming up:
Charlotte - hometown of the Carolina Panthers - is a sprawling, ugly
Sunbelt city that looks a lot like Atlanta. But Atlanta was once "the
city too busy to hate."
Charlotte is the city too easy to hate.
This endless and soul-less NASCAR-hypnotized expanse of strip malls
and Shoney's finally got its pro franchise when the NFL finally ran
out of real cities somewhere between Jacksonville, Fla., and Nashville,
Tenn. However, there is one area where the Carolinas can lay claim
to major league status: The self-righteous hypocrisy of its rogue's
gallery of unreformed segregationists and Bible-thumping con artists.
Here's a reminder of things to hate about Charlotte and the Carolinas.
Feel free to clip it out and carry it in your hip pocket every time
this week you get too nonchalant about next Sunday.
We're treated, near the end, to the "Carolinas' Hypocrite Hall
of Fame" starring Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Billy Graham, Jesse
Helms and Strom Thurmond. Whew.
Link
to this item | Comment Hardware lust: Wired
reports on a $300 solar jacket that recharges all your electronic
devices while you're walking in the sunshine, but the best roundup of
gadgets from last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is at
Gizmodo.
Link
to this item | Comment
How the Iowa caucuses work: It's more like Survivor than
you think. Here's a lucid explanation from Josh
Marshall, who's been paying attention:
... basically how the caucuses work is that everyone
shows up and they divide into groups based on candidate preference.
But if your candidate has less than 15% of the attendees then your
guy (or
gal) is out.
(Presumably, at the beginning of the evening someone gets out an envelope,
counts who's there and does some quick math to determine how many people
get you over 15%. I'd be ruled out for that job.)
Once your candidate is out you have to pick another.
Now, the numbers we're seeing are statewide. And the demographic gap
between, say, the Gephardt and Dean voters is great enough that in particular
caucus locations the spread is apt to be very different. However, you
don't have to look too long at the numbers to see that there are some
candidates with not insubstantial support that are going to get knocked
out on the first round at many locations.
To put it succinctly, in many caucuses, the issue is going to be less
whether Gephardt and Dean are separated by 2% or 6% as who the Kerry
and Edwards supporters go to on the second round.
Link
to this item | Comment
Who's schoolin' whom? Dave Lieber, of the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram,
writes (Hey!
Where's the problem?),
Carl Grimmer's father taught him how to send messages through network
computers as part of a tutorial on how DOS worked. DOS, you might recall,
preceded Windows as the dominant operating system during the 1980s and
early 1990s.
"It was neat," Carl Grimmer told me the other day. "I
had never seen it before."
I guess it's only natural that the next day, Carl went to school and
in his eighth-grade computer class showed a friend how the messaging
system worked. That's what learning and experimenting is all about. I
think that's what school is about.
The result of his trick was that every computer in the school, approximately
80 of them, received his message of "Hey!"
Carl was suspended for three days.
Columnist Lieber got an email from Beverly Sweeney,
a computer teacher and campus computer liaison at Carl's Richland Hills,
Texas, school. In it she writes of Carl's offense,
"Hacking into a system should be highest on the list of tampering
violations. I believe the other students are now aware that the district
takes this seriously and will not tolerate such misuse of our equipment."
A computer teacher should know that sending a DOS command
to the rest of the computers on the network isn't hacking; should know
the difference between malicious damage and "Hallo, Watson!" The "hacking"
command Carl typed? It was
net send * HEY!
Here's the story in Carl's words.
Link
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Kodak
gives up on film cameras: Hard to imagine it's come to that so
soon.
Link
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Spiritual Cockroaches: Metafilter tosses up the life and work of K. Ungeheuer, who wrote very
short stories -- a few paragraphs each, and quite astonishing.
Here's one, in its entirety:
Odin's Eye
With one hand young Eric gently lifted up the edge of the shrub exposing
the large black rabbit. It looked up at Eric, blinked rapidly in the
sun, then went back to grooming itself.
"Hi big fella", Eric said softly. He knelt cautiously, trying
not to spook the animal. He reached down and quickly grabbed the back
of its neck. He strengthened his grip, but the animal wasn't struggling.
Its fur was rough and old, but the rabbit was still quite fit and strong.
Eric put a hand on either side of the rabbit's head and with a quick
jerk snapped its neck. The rabbit kicked free with one panicked convulsion
and took off across the open field. Its head swung from side to side
as it ran. Eric didn't think about giving chase until he realized that
the rabbit wasn't slowing down. By the time he started after it, it was
barely visible, running as if it weren't injured at all.
Hidden safely, the rabbit moaned in pain. The source of the pain was
not the broken neck which had already started to heal. The pain came
from the tiny fragment of divinity deep inside the rabbit. It writhed
in frustration at having been mistakenly imprisoned in the body that
it now made immortal.
Link
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Who's watching what CBS decides about the Bush
in 30 Seconds Super
Bowl ad? (see yesterday's
lead item below) Dan
Gillmor, Jeff
Jarvis, J.D.
Lasica and David
Weinberger are blogging this today, and their readers
are commenting (all but Weinberger's, actually; he had to disable comments
due to spammers taking them over).
I think CBS steps in it
here. The unnamed spokesman is forcing CBS to make a
bizarre policy -- what standards or practices
could this
subtle ad violate?
All media
companies are eagerly anticipating a windfall from this season's political
ads, and moveon.org is looking to spend $1.7 to $2 million for the spot.
Will CBS say football
is
too sacred for
politics -- but not for beer and Viagra? It seems to me they go together
well!
Bonus: Weinberger's
take on the two entries in the contest that compared Bush to Hitler: Let's
not retire the Hitler comparisons.
Link
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January 13, 2004, 7:45 p.m.
CBS may nix winning 'Bush in 30 seconds' ad for Super Bowl: I'm
backing into this. The winning ads are below, but this is the news, from
AdAge:
Anti-Bush
ad contest submits Super Bowl commercial: CBS Spokesman Doubts Spot Will
Pass Standards
Review:
Liberal
activist group MoveOn.org last night announced it has chosen an anti-President
Bush ad to air ahead of next week's "State of the Union" address
and said today it is negotiating with CBS to gain airtime on the
Super Bowl.
A spokesman for CBS said the Viacom-owned network has received the request
from MoveOn to run the ad in the Super Bowl, but added that the ad has
to go through standards and practices before CBS will say if it can run
an advocacy ad during the game. The spokesman said he didn't think it
was likely that the spot would pass standards and practices. ...
Standards? Has he seen it? Beautifully photographed children work in
factories over a pleasant soundtrack. The
only text in the ad is "Who will pay off President Bush's $1 trillion
deficit?" What's to complain about? Ross
Perot taught America to ask that question in an earlier election.
Here's
the ad. Decide for yourself.
Now to the winners of the Bush
in 30 seconds contest:
Morons.org
has a straightforward report on the winners, with some readers' comments.
Because some of the publicity about the contest came from two entries
(among more than 1,500) that compared the President to Hitler, this topic
arose:
Billed by Moveon.org as the “climatic finale ” Monday's
event was the tail piece to a controversy that sparked two weeks ago
after the Republican National Committee slammed the group for accepting
two ads that compared Bush to Adolf Hitler. The RNC said the ads were
in “poor taste.” Moveon.org fired back, accusing the RNC
of a misinformation campaign, noting that the Hitler ads were only two
of the over 1,500 ads submitted. Moveon removed the ads from their website
and apologized for letting them “slip through” the selection
process. (The Hitler ads can still be viewed at the RNC website.)
(They seem to have been removed from the RNC website, where the url
was http://www.rnc.org/moveonvideo.htm.
Perhaps someone high in the GOP thought better of having the site disseminate
the sentiment.)
Related: Franken
signs on with liberal radio network: From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune,
Satirical superstar and St. Louis Park native Al Franken has signed
on as a prime player with Central Air, a new politically liberal radio
network. Franken will host a daily talk show, his agent confirmed on
Monday. When the New York-based network goes on the air later this
year, his show is expected to run from noon to 3 p.m., going head-to-head
in many markets with conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh.
Related: Jared Ewy, a winner of the Best Youth Ad in moveon.org's contest
works with Outrage
Radio, the liberal web-radio site whose founders also blog.
In a press release today, Michael Tulipan, who launched Outrage Radio with
James Linkin in November, writes,
Jared has been the talent behind FrontPage Outrage, OutrageRadio.com’s
liberal take on the weekly news since the end of November 2003. He
produces the segments out of Denver, Colorado, where he works as a
DJ. Jared has
worked for the radio industry for the last decade, often as a top
40 DJ, where he has attempted to sway the minds of his impressionable
listeners
by dropping in left-wing political statements. Stymied by his corporate
bosses, he turned to OutrageRadio.com as an outlet for his patented
brand of topical humor and ironic news.
Link
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More free, legal music: My colleague Sean
Polay writes,
A good sampling here:
http://www.matadorrecords.com/music/mp3s.html
I've found myself on more than one occassion seeking mp3s for a band I've
read a review about, only to learn it was a Matador artist: Cat Power, Steve
Malkmus, Yo La Tengo, to name a few.
I also have grabbed more than a few mp3s from WMVYs Local Music Cafe page:
http://www.mvyradio.com
Incidentally, I killed my emusic subscription. I used it a lot at first,
but then found myself scouring the Web for mp3s I could not find on the emusic
site. I think I had pulled everything from emusic that interested me. I discovered
I was paying $10 a month, and going months at a time without downloading.
I still can't bring myself to pay per song, though if (probably more like
when...) I get the new iPod that was introduced at Macworld this week I might
be more inspired to do that.
But most CDs that I've purchased this year (at least a half dozen, probably)
have followed downloading an artist's mp3s (Damien Rice) or sampling more
than a few 30-second samples (The Thorns, Floron, Alexi Murdoch). And I especially
love it when bands put up mp3 cuts that are different from album versions
-- or simply not on the album at all.
Link
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Not-so-instant karma: I didn't care for the
Brett Favre "Monday
Morning Quarterback" ads for MasterCard in which the quarterback
switches roles with his fans, strolling through Green Bay with his wife,
Deanna, and making comments about how HE would have foreseen and avoided
mistakes in their jobs. The joke didn't work for me -- rather
than turning the tables, the comments seemed supercilious, the Mr. Perfect
you want to thumb your nose at. So I understand what led Gregg
Easterbrook at NFL.com to spoof the ads today:
...some MasterCard-sponsored advice for Brett Favre. The great quarterback
lost the game in overtime by heaving a deep pass that went right to
a defender; Favre seemingly never looked before throwing to make sure
no Eagle was there. So here's my MasterCard-sponsored advice to Favre
-- I would have checked for the safety!
Link
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A new Iraq news link: Reader Tom Lancaster writes,
I thought you might like to check out www.juancole.com as a good link
for analysis of events in Iraq. The blogger is a prof at the University
of Michigan, and is an expert on the Middle East.
In addition to his cogent analysis of events, and reporting of under-reported
stories from Iraq, he appears to have high-quality informers to back
him up.
I think this is probably the highest quality Iraq analysis site out
there.
Juan Cole * Informed Comment * has been added to the Iraq
news links page, with thanks to Mr. Lancaster.
Link
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January 12, 2004, 7:05 p.m. -- (Last
week's weblog) Internet
Grows as Campaign News Source: From Internet.com,
Americans are turning off their network news and skipping the daily
newspaper, as a joint Pew Research
Center for The People & The Press
and Pew Internet & American Life Project survey identified the
methods in which citizens learn about political candidates. As a sign
of the
changing times, there have been some dramatic declines in traditional
forms of media, while there were some new media gains.
In the survey of more than 1,500 adults (where more than two-thirds
were Internet users) conducted December 19, 2003 to January 4, 2004,
the local TV news was shown to be the dominant source for information
about the candidates and the campaign, but cable news and the Internet,
along with some other sources, chipped away at the lead.
Pew Internet & American Life Project Director Lee Rainie explains
the appeal of the Internet for political information: "As the
Internet audience goes more mainstream, more people say that the 'convenience'
of getting news online is a major factor for them. In other words,
many
are not going online to get special political info, or extra political
info that they couldn't find on other media."
Rainie reflects on how the role of the Internet has changed over the
past presidential elections: "This is quite unlike 1996 when the
small online political audience was dominated by people who loved the
Internet as a way to bypass the 'stranglehold' on political news by
big media. The current population doesn't see it that way. They just
like
the fact that they can quickly scan political headlines online while
they're doing other things on the Internet and they are happy to take
the information provided by big wire services and big media companies."
Here's the actual
report from Pew, including the questionnaire and results.
J.D. Lasica tracks this and other breaking journalism stories today
at his New
Media Musings blog. I won't repeat them here.
Link
to this item | Comment Vote:
NFL Playoff Predictions. SportsNation at ESPN.com is
asking the obvious questions. Voters would rather have Peyton Manning
than
Tom Brady as a quarterback, but right now the fans expect the Patriots
to take it all.
Link
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How to Lose Your Job in Talk Radio: Clear Channel gags an antiwar conservative. At The American Conservative, Charles Goyette, one-time afternoon drive-time
talk show host on KFYI in Phoenix, details his demotion and concludes,
I’ve seen how war fever infects a people. And I was in a no-win
situation, with an audience pre-screened by virtue of 11 hours a day
of screaming war frenzy—unlistenable for the uninfected—that
surrounded my time slot. So I knew there would be a personal price for
opposing the war, and I was prepared to pay it. But as a lover of the
rough and tumble of public debate and the contest of ideas, I am disappointed
at what is happening in my industry. At least at Clear Channel, there’s
only one word for the belief that talk radio is still a fair and fearless
search for the truth: “Un-Bull-ieveable!”
Link
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The
Macintosh's Twisted Truth: From Wired,
Apple's CEO Steve Jobs and the Macintosh are inextricably linked in
the minds of most people. So it may come as a surprise to learn the Mac
wasn't his idea at all.
In fact, he actually wanted to kill the project in its infancy. Luckily
for Apple, he wasn't successful.
The story of the Mac is a tale of one man's inspiration, another man's
ego and the dedication of a small band of "pirates" who forever
changed the way the world computes.
The true father of the Macintosh is Jef Raskin, a professor turned
computer consultant who was hired by Apple in 1978 to write computer
manuals. ...
Link
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Imprimatur:
How big brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the
bottle. By John Walker, founder of Autodesk, Inc. and co-author
of AutoCAD.
Earlier I believed there was no way to put the Internet genie back into
the bottle. In this document I will provide a road map of precisely how
I believe that could be done, potentially setting the stage for an authoritarian
political and intellectual dark age global in scope and self-perpetuating,
a disempowerment of the individual which extinguishes the very innovation
and diversity of thought which have brought down so many tyrannies in
the past.
Related: "Speak Freely"
End of Life Announcement by the same John Walker. His early internet telephony
program will vanish Jan. 15. (Why) Get it now if you're a collector.
Speak Freely for Unix
Speak Freely for Windows
Source code for Speak Freely is in the public domain and may be downloaded
from links on the above pages, or directly from CVS archives on SourceForge for the Unix and Windows versions.
Link
to this item | Comment
 Dr.
Stephen Hawking Interactive Action Figure is only one of
the truly weird items at StrangeBuys.com:
The Dr. Stephen Hawking Action Figure stands approximately 5 1/2 inches
tall and comes with a mug of beer and a flying wheelchair. Place Dr.
Hawking
on any compatible Springfield Environment to hear him talk! Recommended
for ages 4 and up.
Price: $8.99
Link
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How To: By You: An experiment
in inuition.
This sociological project is about the study of knowledge among human
society and how it can differ and change.
How to play:
Every now and then, a new topic will be posted. It could be anything
from 'How to eat peas.' to 'How to build an areoplane.' No answer is
wrong and it's up to you, the player, to explain how to do it. Have fun,
try to keep it on topic and check back for more updates.
The current questions lead with,
How to: Upgrade a computer
Post Answer :: 1 answers posted
How to: Build a wrestling ring
Post Answer :: 1 answers posted
How to: Cook brussel sprouts
Post Answer :: 7 answers posted
How to: Get black residue out of a dryer
Post Answer :: 3 answers posted
How to: Keep condensation from forming on the inside of your windows
during the winter with the heater on
Post Answer :: 4 answers posted
How to: Make a hot toddy ...
Christopher
Guest interview at Guardian (U.K.): For fans of This
is Spinal Tap, A
Mighty Wind and Jamie Lee Curtis (Lady Haden-Guest):
When Spinal Tap was first released it was greeted with outrage and affront
by English heavy metal bands. Iron Maiden reportedly walked out of the
premiere, convinced they were the model for the film. According to the
book This Is Spinal Tap: The Official Companion, someone from the band
Foghat accused the film-makers of bugging their tour bus - how else could
they have known about the astrologist girlfriend who comes in and tries
to take over the band?
Guest hadn't heard that one before and he greets it with a snort of
wry amusement. "If you've ever been in a band in your life, and
I've been in lots of bands, there's always a girlfriend who tries to
take over. You don't have to bug someone's tour bus. It's the Yoko
syndrome. It happened back in the days of the big bands. It probably
happened to
Mozart."
Then, after initial resentments faded, Spinal Tap became co-opted
by the heavy rock establishment. The video became a staple on tour
buses.
Eddie Van Halen, whom Guest knows, had an amplifier built with dials
that went up to 11. Then a company started manufacturing and marketing
amps that went to 11. "So I had one made for me by Marshall that
goes up to infinity," says Guest. "It has the infinity symbol
on the knob and it just keeps turning and never gets to the end."
The film has lived on to an extraordinary extent, and so has the band.
Conceived as a satirical entity, Spinal Tap have now been playing real,
live concerts for nearly 20 years.
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More free music: Garageband.com
Link to this item |
Comment
Subterranean Homepage News
by Sheila Lennon
features & interactive producer of projo.com
|
