Quips: Quick commentary on politics, technology and life, I think.

Wednesday, October 29

Not necessarily the news

(via Gillmor) Bill Moyers, host of NOW, chatted with Buzzflash and had a couple interesting things to say:

Presidents want their options protected, their good intentions emphasized, their sins unreported, and their mistakes forgiven; journalists want to find out what's going on. That much hasn't changed.

Broadcast journalism came wrapped in an entertainment medium and was compromised early on because of it.

On a related note, Katie Couric is defending her interview with Elizabeth Smart. More disturbing is how the parents were paid for their participation in the CBS movie.

Posted by jb, 1:51 PM :: :: #

Roundup time

Yes, I've been delinquent. So I've got to point you too all sort of things with very little commentary. Why? Because I have to go to work.
Long-time readers may have noticed that I love the Seattle P-I's Buzzworthy. The latest highlight from them is an article about the physics of traffic. Quick summary:

"Being traffic-smart is good in an uncrowded situation, but it's extremely inefficient in a congested one."

In other recent articles, NYU professor Jay rosen has two related posts: What's radical and what's conservative about media outlets using weblogs. Whether or not it'll start a revolution is still up for discussion.

Posted by jb, 9:09 AM :: :: #

Wednesday, October 22

An exploding yellow wall coming to the Arb

To all those with a soft spot for Ann Arbor, Susan Ager writes about an artist and her contribution to the University of Michigan's public garden:

"Her latest idea: To plant 10,000 daffodil bulbs in a zigzag line across Ann Arbor's beloved Nichols Arboretum where, in April, they would bloom into a kinky half-mile ribbon of ferocious yellow. She didn't think anyone would let her do it."

Posted by jb, 7:35 AM :: :: #

Political roundup

Three notes from the world of the American federal system of government.
  This from Dawson Bell on Howard Dean:

But I think it says something about Dean's political skill that he has become the darling of an Arianna Huffington-style antiestablishment, anticorporate insurgency while keeping a fleet of Arnold Schwarzenegger-style cars on the road. ... And it's a good reminder that leading an insurgency is almost always perilous.

Helen Thomas agrees with me about Bush's non-reading habit:

Anyone who wants to stay in touch with national, international and local events looks forward to reading the newspaper every day. The variety and breadth of newspaper stories make Americans the best-informed people in the world. ... It's too bad that Bush's reading habits take him out of the information link that connects us and provides the glue that holds our society together.

And as the pledge battle gets started, the Seattle P-I had an interesting editorial:

From Baer's work, it's clear that the Pledge of Allegiance -- let alone the "under God" phrase -- is hardly vested in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution or the Bill of Rights. The original pledge was part of a public relations gambit by The Youth Companion magazine to give the flag a larger role in public education.

Posted by jb, 12:13 AM :: :: #

Monday, October 20

A friendly reminder from the Lord

The next time you hear from a Christian Conservative contending government should legislate morality or somehow enforce their code of righteous living, recall these lines from the apostle James, part of the scripture readings at the church we attended:

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. ... There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you — who are you to judge your neighbor?

And to those business owners and corporate officers who value profits above people:

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. ... You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. ... You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. (NIV)

Not a pretty picture for those who forget to love their fellow human beings.

Posted by jb, 11:41 AM :: :: #

Thursday, October 16

And now for the application

I think there's nothing built into the nature of technological progress that determines that the world will get better as a whole. It can go either way and everything just seems to look more and more bleak sometimes.

— New York Times business and technology reporter John Markoff in an OJR interview.
  He's got a point. It's all how we decide to use it. If the new destroys/displaces the old without making anything better, it's hard to see how that's progress.

Posted by jb, 5:47 PM :: :: #

We're watching, but not understanding

Who can say whether it's deliberate, but an op-ed pointed out to me today makes note of a study that showed Fox News viewers seem to be misinformed about the war on Iraq, the war on terror, or both, assuming they aren't the same thing.

The fair and balanced folks at Fox, the survey concludes, were "the news source whose viewers had the most misperceptions." Eighty percent of Fox viewers believed at least one of these un-facts; 45 percent believed all three.

The interesting thing looking at the detailed findings (available at the Program on International Policy Attitudes or through these PDFs: press release and detailed report) is that the frequency of the misperception goes up among Bush supporters the more they report following the news. Hmm. Who says the administration isn't getting its message out.

Update: The Mighty Pen has its own take on the current climate. And he added me to his sidebar of links.

Posted by jb, 4:50 PM :: :: #

Wednesday, October 15

The death of baseball has been greatly exaggerated

From a wire report: "For the first time, a baseball league championship game drew more television viewers than 'Monday Night Football' head-to-head. Game 4 of the AL championship got an 11.6 rating and 18 share on Fox, 38 percent higher than the 8.4 rating for ABC's coverage of the Atlanta Falcons against the St. Louis Rams. The rating for the football game, a 36-0 blowout for the Rams, was the lowest ever in the 34-year history of 'Monday Night Football.'"

Playoffs are king. The NFL isn't quaking in its cleats or anything, but let there be no doubt that people can be riveted by a hotly contested series on the diamond.

Posted by jb, 1:52 PM :: :: #

Tuesday, October 14

On the changing of a culture

Two articles, mostly unrelated, that came to my attention today:

"What screwball gave permission to have the national anthem desecrated by singing it in the jazzy, hippy manner that it was sung? It was disgraceful and I sincerely hope such a travesty will never be permitted again."

— From a 1968 letter to the editor after Jose Feliciano sang the anthem before a World Series game, the first time the melody had been improvised. BTW, the "screwball" was Ernie Harwell.

Postman, world famous media scholar, was famous among students and friends for refusing any technology thought to "improve" something in which he had never requested improvements.

— from Jay Rosen's recollections on the life of Neil Postman, author of "Amusing Ourselves to Death" — a treatise on how entertainment, namely modern American television, undermines a society's ability to think seriously about itself.

Posted by jb, 8:25 AM :: :: #

Saturday, October 11

Exploring Cincinnati, Vol. 1

We went to see Quentin Tarantino's latest tonight, followed by dinner. We did have dessert, but elected not to try the Screaming Yellow Monkey martini.

Posted by jb, 11:42 PM :: :: #

Thursday, October 9

The democracy of the future

Haven't been able to coalesce my thoughts about California's recall. National TV news shows no inclination to compare the issue positions of the candidates, so why should the candidates even bother to take positions on issues. By the end there, all I saw (from far-away Ohio mind you) was Arnold vs. Gray, which really isn't what this was about. (St. Pete Times has a story that the media may have been the biggest loser.)
  In any case, there were way too many good articles yesterday, especially using exit polls to explain how segments of the population voted compared to Davis's last election with special props to NYT's interactive graphics. Feel free to visit the Recall Specials of the LA Times, SF Chronicle, OC Register, WashPost, NYTimes and SacBee and pick your analysis.
  Just a couple of articles to highlight:

• Money still plays the biggest role
• So familiar, yet so unknown: An LA Times profile of the new governor

And Woods has his own take on the whole (dysfunctional) thing.

Posted by jb, 10:04 AM :: :: #

Tuesday, October 7

Shopping for the home

We're making progress on the furnishings. We've purchased two sofas and matching chairs, one each for the living room and the piano room (not the same style mind you, but the other one isn't online anywhere). We've purchased rugs for the breakfast eating nook and the entry way. And we've got shelving to put together. All part of making a house into a home.

Posted by jb, 11:48 PM :: :: #

Objectivity means thinks exactly like I do

I had seen, and was dismayed by, the interview where President Bush notes that he scans headlines, but does not read newspapers. But I had not noted this quote:

I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news. And the best way to get the news is from objective sources, and the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world.

There are way too many ways to find flaws in that argument. The most objective sources I have are people I've hired. The most objective sources I have weren't at the events they're describing to me. Kottke notes another example from the latest New Yorker

Posted by jb, 1:10 PM :: :: #

Monday, October 6

Insights from columnists

Highlights from my recent reading of the published thoughts of bright people:

• Mike's got a column on fatherhood. Sounds to me like he's going to be just fine.
• George writes about baseball and how late starts are depriving the game of its future fan base. I agree, though noting that I listened to the final outs of the '84 World Series. But I firmly believe that every 10-year-old should have his team get a chance to win.
• From this weekend's Michigan football game, J. Brady McCollough is ready to take the blame for the loss (never wear an opponent's sweatshirt on a road trip). Naweed Sikora has a better suggestion for the coaching staff: let the experienced quarterback play to win or bench him and get on with teaching the next guy.

On an unrelated note, Gerik's got a new movie.

Posted by jb, 5:23 PM :: :: #

Wednesday, October 1

What makes a good business

Art Thiel had an excellent column yesterday that should be required reading for anyone who owns a sports team.
  My summary: You run something that gives people joy. Spend money accordingly, or they'll stop loving you, and that's the only thing that brings them out. (Witness Detroit, which gets four examples and Cincinnati, three times.)
  Some quotes:

(CEO Howard) Lincoln is enmeshed in a classic sports-franchise mistake made by many highly successful entrepreneurs relatively new to the cockeyed world of pro jockdom: He believes most principles that made his business successful apply to sports.

... Whether the move works out from either a baseball or a financial sense is secondary to the credibility gained in a competitive enterprise that is show business, not just plain business.

... Additionally, in this market, a profound change has occurred. Baseball has gone from an irrelevance to a secular religion. As with church, people don't show up on Sunday to hear about budgets, they go to have their spirits lifted.

Posted by jb, 10:55 AM :: :: #

 More in the archives.

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