| By Sheila Lennon
'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros
Oct. 18, 2002 - (Last
week's weblog)
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NYPL
Picture Collection: "The Picture Collection Online
is an image resource site for those who seek knowledge and inspiration
from visual materials. It is a collection of 30,000 digitized, public
domain images from books, magazines and newspapers as well as original
photographs, prints and postcards, mostly created before 1923. ..."
Since it's from the New York Public Library, there are a lot of
historical images, and stranger images too, obviously. via
Judy
Watt
Related:
Online collection of 19th
century sheet music at the Library of Congress.
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Free
Jaguar for teachers: "Apple is offering K-12 teachers a free
copy of OS X 10.2 Jaguar: tell your teacher buddies and school IT people!"
writes Glenn
Fleishman.
JD Lasica,
live from the PopTech conference in Camden, Maine: Photos and more, such
as this lovely quote from Howard
Rheingold, explaining Smart
Mobs:
Smart observation from HLR: "If you had asked Disney and Microsoft
and a dozen other companies to come up with a blueprint for inventing
the Web, they'd still be working on it in our grandchildren's lifetime.
If you asked 2 million people to throw up pictures of their dogs on
the Web, they'll get it done." (Wording was slightly different,
doing this from memory.)
Legato,
a lovely animated dance/music piece. Move the cursor to make the figures
dance together..... via Liz
Donovan
How
a record store in Paris became a center of African music: From
the New Yorker,
Hervé Halfon, a French person who hates French people, owns
a record store on the Rue des Plantes, in Montparnasse, just a few Métro
stops from the Eiffel Tower but spiritually closer to Avenue Gambela,
in Congo, or to the Mokolo district, in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The
store is called Afric' Music. It has a small sign and an unremarkable
window display, and it's about the size and shape of a Parisian parking
space. Inside, Hervé has spared all expense on the décor.
Besides the floor and ceiling and one long counter, the store is nothing
but rows and rows of CDs in racks and on shelves and in piles, all of
them devoted to African music, except for a section reserved for the
music of the Caribbean.
Terror
Turns Real for Horror Site: From Wired,
Matt Rexer admits that he was hoping to raise a little hell on his
website.
But the sudden appearance this week of a message purporting to be from
Osama bin Laden, head of the al-Qaida terrorist network, on Rexer's
Clive Barker fan site
truly spooked the horror film fan.
The message that turned up on Rexer's site congratulated the "...
Islamic world for the heroic operations of courageous jihad carried
out by its pious fighter children in Yemen, against the tanker of the
crusaders, and in Kuwait, against the American invasion and occupation
forces," and was signed "Osama bin Mohammad bin Laden, your
brother."
Oct. 17, 2002
Surviving
a sniper: Gripping story by the Washington Post on the superb efforts
by medical teams who saved the life of the sniper's 13-year-old victim after
the equivalent of a small grenade had exploded in the boy's chest.
Woody
Harrelson writes from London, where he's appearing
in a play (On an Average Day) in the West End:
...what I'd do in Bush's shoes. Easy: I'd honour Kyoto. Join the world
court. I'd stop subsidising earth rapers like Monsanto, Dupont and Exxon.
I'd shut down the nuclear power plants. So I already have $200bn saved
from corporate welfare. I'd save another $100bn by stopping the war
on non-corporate drugs. And I'd cut the defence budget in half so they'd
have to get by on a measly $200bn a year. I've already saved half a
trillion bucks by saying no to polluters and warmongers.
Then I'd give $300bn back to the taxpayers. I'd take the rest and pay
the people teaching our children what they deserve. I'd put $100bn into
alternative fuels and renewable energy. I'd revive the Chemurgy movement,
which made the farmer the root of the economy, and make paper and fuel
from wheat straw, rice straw and hemp. Not only would I attend, I'd
sponsor the next Earth Summit. And, of course, I'd give myself a fat
raise.
TechnoPop:
The Secret History of Technology and Popular Music at NPR:
NPR cultural correspondent Rick Karr presents a six-part series on
how technology has changed popular music, from the home piano to electronica.
The series is heard Fridays beginning Sept. 20, 2002 on Morning Edition.
We're up to Part Four, archived online, with Part Five live on tap for
tomorrow. In addition to the audio broadcasts, each show comes with a
photo slideshow -- nice old shots -- sometimes accompanied by audio clips.
The ACLU gets busy:
-- ACLU
questions Pentagon role in sniper probe
The American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday it was examining
legal questions raised by the Pentagon's decision to deploy military
personnel and equipment in the Washington area sniper shootings.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed an order Tuesday allowing
Army RC7 and U21 surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to be used
in the sniper hunt.
The all-weather aircraft -- spy planes, essentially -- are small fixed-wing
airplanes packed with advanced technology, including sensors.
Troops will operate the planes and equipment and point out potential
targets to local law enforcement authorities, which will request their
use as needed.
The ACLU said it was examining whether the order might violate parts
of the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law prohibiting the military from
direct involvement in civilian law enforcement.
Over at Kuro5hin.org,
Posse Comitatus comes up, with historical context and a further explanation;
discussion follows (as at Slashdot, you need to scroll down for that):
In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing, there was a national
dialogue on the roots of domestic terrorism. Much of it pointed to the
blatant abuses by the Federal Government, including the use of National
Guard troops and equipment during the standoff at the Branch Davidian
Compound in Waco, Texas. This is the first and last time most Americans
heard the words posse comitatus. ...
-- ACLU
Campaign Challenges Patriot Act
WASHINGTON -- On the Patriot
Act's first anniversary, the American Civil Liberties Union is launching
a $3.5 million national campaign to protect the freedoms it says the
Bush administration has endangered.
"The ACLU campaign aims to promote a public debate about proposals
and measures that violate civil liberties without increasing our security,"
says Anthony Romero, ACLU's executive director.
The effort includes paid television advertising and organizing its
53 offices and 300,000 members. The focus is on policy issues, including
lobbying to repeal portions of the Patriot Act that the ACLU considers
anti-civil liberties provisions, says Laura Murphy, director of the
ACLU's Washington legislative office.
Sparring Begins
Advertisement
Attorney General John Ashcroft said he welcomes the debate.
"I'm glad I live in a country where the ACLU can criticize me
and vigorously debate the issues," Ashcroft says. "I consider
it my job as attorney general to make sure that this and all our freedoms
endure."
Doing Boing
Boing: Cory Doctorow's blog is full of great stuff, such as,
John
Perry Barlow essay on the state of the nation: "Pox Americana"
John Perry Barlow just published an essay on "the present state
of the American Experiment" to a mailing list of friends, fans,
and assorted geeks. I've posted a copy online.
Open spectrum explained -- REALLY well (pdf)
Kevin Werbach has just posted a fantastic, lucid whitepaper on open
spectrum, covering radical ideas like cognitive radio, ultrawideband,
and software-defined radio in ways that are accessible to the laiety.
Kevin's paper paints a compelling picture of a world of non-scarce spectrum
where high-speed wireless data networks drive community activism, economic
recovery and unparalleled innovation
Warcarving
This Hallowe'en, why not warcarve your pumpkin and let your neighbors
know about your open wireless network?
Buy
a vacation, get a William Shatner Bobblehead
Cute icons from Yip Yop
Greeks get exclusive right to say "feta"
Doc
Searls comments on yesterday's post about bloggers, ethics and
the Microsoft-financed junkets to Mobius 2002:
This is why what we do here is journalism in the literal sense rather
than the professional sense. We keep public journals, often to express
our passions. In many cases this involves advocacy. What we're doing
in those cases is, frankly, closer to PR or entertainment than to big-J
journalism....
There's good thinking going on there, and the entire post, titled "Gold
Standard," advances the conversation.
Oct. 16, 2002
Hair!
(again?)
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Great
local story: Catholic high school writes a dress code
to force a teenager to get his first haircut ever. Ruling expected
Friday. next week.
Related: MulletLovers.com
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Beware the fairy dust: There is a huge ethics
discussion going on among bloggers, sparked, ironically, by the failure
of the only paid speaker among the bloggers on an invitation-only, paid
junket to Microsoft's Mobius 2002 product show to disclose that fact.
It seems that Doc Searls
was actually there not primarily as a journalist, but as a paid geek magnet.
(Doc's blog is the portal to the flow here.)
Doc Searls was a paid speaker. That's fine.
It's the flattering treatment, gifts of plane tickets, luxurious lodging
and hardware to the other bloggers who have gone home and written
enthusiastically about it -- or who intended to until the flap erupted
before they published and may now keep their heads down -- that is troubling.
It suggests Microsoft has decided to court paid enthusiasts and cut out
the tougher, less easily impressed traditional journalists with editors
growling hard questions guaranteed to make the glow fade fast.
First, my own bias: I am typing in the newsroom of a mainstream major
metro daily where no payola is allowed. None. I sometimes leave at night
with giant bouquets sent to the society writer or the restaurant reviewer,
reporters who are not allowed to keep them under our stringent rules.
Reviewers may keep the books, cds and software they review. They may
not sell the overflow; these are offered in monthly "book grabs"
open to the entire building. We are monkish about preserving not only
our objectivity but avoiding the appearance of impropriety. It's why you
can't get rich in journalism.
The only object I have here that was "ill-gotten" is a teal-colored
hunk of geode sent to me unsolicited by a site that hoped I'd write about
them. I didn't. I don't write "gift guides."
Disclosure isn't really the point. Attendee Phillip
Torrone discloses like crazy:
What did the Mobius Attendees get?
Folks always ask "I heard that these folks get cool stuff."
Well, it's true. Attendees received: (links and prices are mine)
Pocket PC Phone Edition. ($549.95)
Swiss Army Mobius
Luggage (starts at $219)
Club
Pocket PC Pocket PC carry all case. ($18)
Mobius Pen-Stylus Combo. (??)
Mobius
Branded SoundBug. ($49.95)
ViewSonic
Pocket PC (when they come out). ($299)
SmartPhone
2002 (when they come out). $299
"jpzr," the editor at wirelesssoftware.info,
was flown from Finland by Microsoft to attend the conference, which he
describes as "invite-only events where influential publishers and
writers are invited to participate in presentations of latest Microsoft's
products in area of Mobile Devices."
His Mobius
Redmond 2002 conference finished leads with,
"The End of Business as Usual" is coming: Microsoft is reaching
out to web communities such as private websites and weblogs (!!!).
and then offers an extended,
not yet finished report.
What troubles me is that I can't find any other reports of the conference
by traditional tech journalists. Were they not invited? Have they not
written yet?
For Microsoft, the cost was inconsequential. The spontaneous outpouring
of blogosphere publicity for its new products? Priceless.
Are there competing products? Will we find that out, or do firms with
smaller wallets not have a chance of getting their product info out? (Here's
a fresh
review of Pocket PCs by several manufacturers.) Should Toshiba and
Dell, which will have new Pocket PC models out by next month, send product
samples to all Mobius attendees? Would that level the playing field? How
can you act on behalf of readers who only get to buy the stuff, without
the glamour of all the freebies (and a sighting of Bill and Melinda Gates)
Do you trust these bloggers to be objective in reporting on the whole
array of choices open to us, knowing now what you do?
Decide for yourself.
Remember the Revolution? Phil Leggiere at
Noosphere Blues
takes me way back with this one:
Wherever they are you have to figure the spirits of Abbie
Hoffman and, yes, Jerry
Rubin as well, are smiling over this one.
The link points to a story at indymedia.org, "Antiwar
activists crash MTV's Total Request Live "
Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book was not stocked by some retailers,
because people would. The pranks
he suggests would land you in the pokey today.
Boston blog: Boston Phoenix writer Dan
Kennedy, on leave to write a book about his daughter's dwarfism, surfaces
with a weblog called Media
Log. viaJoe
Conason
The
march of time: I had thought once that we could document our lives
by saving our driver's licenses through the decades. This family goes
with the photo booth approach. It's lovely:
On June 17th, every year, the family goes through a private ritual:
we photograph ourselves to stop a fleeting moment, the arrow of time
passing by." They began the tradition in 1976.
All sides now: All the big Google
news outlets are linking to the same
nasty Reuters story (Joni Mitchell 'Ashamed' to Be in Music Business)
on Joni Mitchell:
Once described by her friend David Crosby as being "about as humble
as Mussolini," Mitchell has previously described contemporary music
as "appallingly sick ... boring chord movement and bad acting."
Can we have another perspective here?
Mitchell has also previously savaged her former label boss David Geffen
for not paying her any royalties, although he has countered that her
albums never sold enough copies to cover the advance payments that she
received from him.
I have read of too
many artists now saying they received negligible royalites -- Backstreet
Boys, for one -- not to think this says more about how the record labels
do the accounting than about Mitchell's popularity. 1974's Court
& Spark was a million-seller in the U.S.
Oct. 15, 2002 Microsoft
gets caught spoofing a "Switch" ad like Apple's. When sharp-eyed
Slashdot
sleuths (scroll down to see the story evolve) revealed that the alleged
switcher was a
stock image that could be purchased by anyone, the page
disappeared. But here's a
screen shot, grabbed before Microsoft took it down. A sharp AP writer
tracked
down and interviewed the "switcher," who proved to be a
public relations person at a firm hired by Microsoft.
On the Web we have eyes in the back of our heads, just like Mom. No dessert
for Microsoft.
Link
to this item | Comment
Copyright
law open for comment: From ZDNet,
The United States Copyright Office is launching a rare round of public
comment on rules that bar people from breaking through digital copy-protection
technology on works such as music, movies, software or electronic books.
Regulators aren't looking to change the law, but they are looking for
public suggestions on what kinds of activity should be legalized in
spite of the rules.
Link
to this item | Comment
Opposition
over Iraq takes rise via the Net: (link fixed) From the
Boston Globe,
This year, for the first time since the advent of the Internet, Americans
are engaging in public debate about whether to go to war, and a great
deal of the opposition has coalesced online. The ease of electronic
communication allows like-minded people to sign petitions and coordinate
protests far more easily than they could in the 1960s, or even a decade
ago during the Gulf War. But it also raises a question: Can a movement
with no physical center and no pen-and-ink signatures really have a
political impact?
Link
to this item | Comment
Perils of online petitions: There's a petition
going around via email -- with the subject "Stop the war" --
that begins,
Please read & sign the petition if you are against war.
Please take a minute and add your name to this international list
being collected by the UN.
Trouble is, the U.N. doesn't want to hear it. The U.N.
Information Center posted a note that reads, "Note: We have learned
that there is a new petition circulating that claims to have been started
by our office -- we have not, nor have we ever, initiated any petition.
A link leads to a bit
of advice to protestors:
We have been receiving emails as part of a petition -- generated by
an unknown source -- urging the US and international community to refrain
from going to war. While we were heartened by this effort, the United
Nations Secretariat (to which we are employed) is an implementing organ
for the actions and programs agreed upon and supported by its 189 Member
States.
Therefore, if individuals really want their voices heard by these
decision-makers, they should contact their governments and mission to
the UN to express concerns and views. (We would discourage mass correspondence
through emails though!).
Link
to this item | Comment
Senators
Stymied by Web Restrictions: From the Washington Post,
Under Senate rules, ...(30) senators running for reelection may not
update their sites 60 days before the election. The rule, designed to
prevent campaigning on government sites, is being criticized by some
watchdog groups and congressional staff for interfering with lawmakers'
legitimate communication with their constituents.
The House doesn't have this restriction.
Link
to this item | Comment
Hilarious
House of Frightenstein, downloadable: An entire episode of the
Canadian classic hippie horror variety show, "The Hilarious House
of Frightenstein" (featuring
Vincent Price!), available for download in the spirit of the Hallowe'en
season. via BoingBoing
Link
to this item | Comment
Wayback-machine
fun: I Used
to Believe.... collects your funny childhood misconceptions.
Link
to this item | Comment
Last
week's comments:
Because I make this blog by hand, there is no way for readers to comment
in realtime. But you do comment, and last week one item drew a lot of
response:
From Oct. 10 (the stimulus):
The responses:
From Thomas Comerford,
Sir
There is no equivalence in the two pictures.
Tom Comerford
PS Do you think that we should've bombed German kids in WW II?
From David K. James,
This does not reflect well upon your website:
It gives the impression that extremists rule your newspaper.
From: Shiloh Bucher,
And then what? Well, and then the little girls went back to school,
and the women went back to work, and the rape camps were closed, and
the aid workers were able to bring in food, and the children were finally
vaccinated, and the US Army built hospitals, and a loya jirga was finally
convened after twenty years, and a president was chosen, and the Soviet
mines were cleared, and the Taliban stopped butchering 1,500 Afghans
a week, and movies were shown again, and the Sufis were allowed to practice
their form of Islam once again without fear of torture, and they started
playing soccer in the stadium again instead of blowing women's brains
out there, and the "Friendship Bridge" to Uzbekistan was reopened,
and the terrorist camps were destroyed, and Al Queda plans to attack
more civilians were disrupted, and America became a lot safer and so
did Afghanistan.
This cartoon shows plainly that you have no moral reasoning.
From: StillmanB,
a free Iraq, that's what.
From Robert Speirs,
You got it all wrong! You forgot to put in the suicide belt filled
with dynamite around the Arab boy's body. I like the overall message,
though, that anyone who commits terrorism against innocent Americans
can expect to be bombed into oblivion. Keep up the good work!
And, on a lighter note,
From Henry Carmichael,
"Brazen and clueless: The phone rang last night. When I answered,
a recorded voice said, "All our operators are busy right now. Thank
you for holding." He may have said more, but I was gone. Telemarketing
that expects me to hold? Are they nuts?"
The problem here is that the voice didn't say, "Your call is important
to us." That would have kept you on the line, waiting breathlessly,
no doubt.
Link
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Subterranean Homepage News
by Sheila Lennon
features & interactive producer of projo.com
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